The Good-Morrow by John Donne (Poem & Summary)

 

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.