The Good-Morrow is a poem
of twenty-one lines divided into three stanzas. The poet addresses the woman he
loves as they awaken after having spent the night together.
The poem begins with a direct
question from the poet to the woman. Deliberately exaggerating, the poet
expresses his conviction that their lives only began when they fell in love.
Before, they were mere babies at their mothers’ breasts or were indulging in
childish “country pleasures.” This phrase had a double edge in John Donne’s
time: it would have been understood as a...
John Donne's poem, "The
Good Morrow" is a coming-of-age poem that is reminiscent of Shakespeare's
"Romeo and Juliet"; the fifteenth-century Reader's Digest version of
"The Twilight Saga" love story, minus the vampires. It is a very
intimate piece of work that feels almost too intimate to read.
The most likely setting of this
poem is the "morning after", so to speak. It begins in a voice that
speaks his deepest thoughts of love aloud, partly to himself and partly to his
lover, in a slow and peaceful way. "I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
did, til we loved?" (1-2) It's a very close echo to Romeo's declaration on
thinking he was in love with Rosalind, only to find himself smitten with Juliet
- "Did my heart love til now?" (Act 1 Scene 5)
It doesn't take long to realize
that they've already made love; John Donne adds an extra layer of earthy
sexuality to the next line, with lots of imagery of children breastfeeding tied
in the sexual phrase "country pleasures" (3). This gives an
indication that these two lovers, as enraptured as they are currently with each
other, are not new to physical love. This idea is also re-emphasized later in
the poem when John Donne says, "If ever any beauty I did see, which I desired,
and got..." (6-7)
The characterization of the poet
as voice of the poem is so complete, that we the reader can almost imagine the
conversation as it happens - picturing the poet in the bed with his lady,
caressing her face with his dreamy gaze, perhaps pushing a stray hair out of
the way as the two of them reminisce about their love the night before, about
their lives before this moment. He remarks on how they "snorted [snored]
we in the seven sleepers' den...", a reference to an older legend about seven
youth who hid in a cave in the land of Decius from persecution and slept for
187 years. He reassures her that all his previous pleasures in life were
nothing more than mere "fancies", including his previous conquests,
and every partner before now is reduced to "twas but a dream of
thee." (5,7)
The slow, smiling voice the poem
is written in almost seems to have an audible heartbeat, the iambic pentameter
creating a sort of "lub-DUB" sound that heightens the intimacy and
closeness of this couple. The rhythm is not perfect as a Shakespearian sonnet
or as a John Milton sonnet would hold a perfect rhythm, reducing the language
to fit the form, but falters at some points, seeming to speed up and slow down.
It seems appropriate in this
speeding up and slowing of the meter that the poet brings up themes of fear and
death, even as he tries to get closer and closer to his love. He claims that
the two of them hold no fear of each other; the only part of their love that
could die is the part that is "improperly mixed" (19); in other
words, the parts of them that are mortal. Through their perfect, fearless love,
they can find immortality in each other.
There are comparisons to
explorations of "sea-discoverers" and "maps" (12, 13) that
remind us of the historical context of the world the poem is set in. The world
John Donne lived in was a world of explorers setting sail for the New World in
the West to find and conquer new lands. John Donne himself seems to want none
of this, but only to "possess one world; each hath one, and is one."
(14) He wants only to explore this world of his lover and their new life
together.
This is the burning, tragic love
of Romeo and Juliet, the angst of Edward and Bella from Twilight, or the
passion and otherworldly commitment of Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering
Heights - the intensity of new love that either declines into comfortable
lifetime love, or burns itself out in tragic ways, often with everything and
everyone around it. Would he give out his life for his love, or would he come to
earth and live with her as a normal person all his days? Or would he turn from
her to burn with intensity for yet another? We can only guess at the fate of
the two lovers in John Donne's poem, immortalized forever in a private,
passionate moment.
Sources:voices.yahoo.com/john-donnes-poem-good-morrow-68...
- United States-06.07.2012
D.N. Aloysius
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