Summary
Highlights
The video begins by introducing John Donne, an English metaphysical poet (1572-1631) known for themes of religion and love, hyperbole, metaphor, and integrating thought and feeling. The poem's title, 'The Sun Rising,' serves as the catalyst for the speaker's thoughts and messages within the poem.
The speaker immediately confronts the sun, using apostrophe and an assertive, confrontational tone. He calls the sun a 'busy old fool' and 'unruly son,' accusing it of purposefully disrupting him and his lover. He demands why the sun's schedule should dictate their love, which he claims knows no season, climate, or time. He sarcastically tells the sun to bother schoolboys, apprentices, huntsmen, and farmers instead, highlighting his perceived superiority of his love. He concludes that love is timeless and everlasting, unlike 'rags of time.'
The speaker continues to mock the sun, questioning its strength. He claims he could 'eclipse and cloud' its beams with a simple wink, but chooses not to lose sight of his lover. He then challenges the sun, suggesting his lover's eyes are brighter than its rays. He instructs the sun to search for the riches of the 'Indias of spice and mine' and the kings it saw yesterday, implying they are all contained within his bed with his lover, thus diminishing the sun's power over the broader world.
The speaker proclaims his lover is 'all states and all princes,' emphasizing the hyperbolic idea that their love encompasses everything important. He dismisses all other honors and wealth as meaningless compared to their bond. He asserts that the sun is 'half as happy as we,' and because his world has 'contracted' to his lover, the sun's duty to 'warm the world' can be fulfilled by simply warming them. He demands the sun 'shine here to us,' making their bed the center of its power and their room its entire 'sphere,' indicating that their love is the universe's focus.
The poem consists of three 10-line stanzas, following an A B B A C D C D E E rhyme scheme. The varying line lengths reflect the speaker's shifting tone. The sun serves as an extended metaphor for real-life interferences in a relationship. The most significant extended metaphor is the world contracting into their room, symbolizing the immense strength and authority of love. The overall tone is confrontational, condescending, brazen, assertive, mocking, and commanding.