The Good-Morrow
by John Donne
(Poem & Summary)
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and
I
Did, till we loved? Were we not
weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures,
childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’
den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures
fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a
dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking
souls,
Which watch not one another out of
fear;
For love, all love of other sights
controls,
And makes one little room an
everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds
have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds
have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath
one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine
appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces
rest;
Where can we find two better
hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without
declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and
I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
"The
Good-Morrow" is a poem of twenty-one lines, divided into three stanzas.
The poet addresses the woman he loves as they wake up after spending the night
together.
The
poem begins with a direct question from the poet to the woman. Deliberately
exaggerating, the poet expresses his belief that his life began, only when they
fell in love. Earlier, they were children on their mother's breasts or were
indulged in childish “country pleasures.”. In John Donne's time, this phrase
had a double edge: it was understood as a reference to gross sexual
satisfaction. Perhaps, the poet says, they were asleep in the Seven Sleepers’
den (referring to an ancient Syrian legend, in which persecuted Christians
slept for several hundred years in a cave near Ephesus). He asserts, that
compared with this true love, all past pleasures have been merely “fancies,”
and the women he “desir’d, and got” were only a “dream” of this one woman.
The
second stanza opens with a greeting to their souls as they awaken into a
constant, trusting love. They have no need to keep a jealous eye on each other,
because their love subdues the desire, to look for other partners; their love
is so complete, so self-sufficient, that it “makes one little room, an
everywhere.” The emphasis moves to the external world that the lovers have
abandoned for each other. The poet contrasts the physical worlds sought by
explorers and map readers, with the spiritual world of the lovers. When he
asserts that each of them is a world in itself, he is referring to the
Elizabethan concept of microcosm and macrocosm: the view that every man and
woman is a miniature universe, with the same qualities and components as the
greater universe.
In
the third stanza, the poet’s attention focuses on himself and the beloved. As
they gaze into each other’s eyes, each sees a tiny image of the other,
reflected in the lover’s eye, and “true plain hearts” that “in the faces rest.”
Where, the poet asks, could they find “two better hemispheres”—referring to
their faces and to the two lovers themselves as two halves of one world. Their
love is spiritual, not earthly, and so, is not subject to coldness (“sharp
North”) or decrease (“declining West”).
The
concept behind the fifth line is, that the earthly sphere is composed of
heterogeneous substances which are unstable, ever-changing, and therefore
mortal. The heavenly sphere is formed of homogeneous spiritual substance, which
is pure and eternal. Sensual love is earthly and subject to change and decay,
whereas the love enjoyed by the poet and his beloved is “equal,” a state of
oneness, a pure and changeless union.
The
poem refers to spiritual awakening which constitutes an all-absorbing nature of
love. It is an awakening to a new life. The lover expresses his surprise as to
what he and his beloved did, before they fell in love with each other. He
regards their former pleasures as childish and their former life as a long
sleep in which they were as oblivious of the reality of life as the Seven
Sleepers were during their long sleep of a duration of two centuries. In
comparison to their present pleasure in love of each other, all their former
pleasures seem unsubstantial and unreal. Other beautiful women whom he courted,
and whose love he could get, now seem to him only the reflections of his
present beloved.
The second
stanza gives expression to the idea that love transforms a room into a complete
world by focusing the lover's attention on each other. The poet (lover also)
bids good morning to their waking souls, souls which have waken from a long
sleep devoid of love. Their souls are now walking into a world of love and
watching each other, bewitched by love force. Fear is gone from their soul.
Love is an emotion powerful enough to control and channelize the individual's
perception; it compels an individual to observe nothing but love. Love can
transform a room into a complete world, for the lover can cease to think of
anything except his beloved. The poet says that the discoveries may go and search
for new lands, map makers may chart new areas, but for the lovers, there is no
world other than their world of love, which they are eager to possess. For the
lovers, the world is delimited to each other's personality, and even the world
of the lover and that of the beloved unite and merge into each other.
The
lover can see his own face reflected in his beloved's eyes, she can also see
her own face reflected in her lover's eyes. Their hearts replete with love for
each other, are reflected in their faces. The poet then emphasizes the idea,
that there cannot be two better globes elsewhere. In their faces, there are no sharp
northern or southern declinations. In their globes, i.e. their faces, there
exists no polarity or differentiation. The poet is of the view, that whatever
dies is made up of unequal compounds. If their love for each other is equally
intense, neither of the two (lover and beloved) can die, for it is only the
mixture of unequal elements which is subject to decay.
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