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Unit 4 John Donne the Good Morrow N the Canonization.Pmd John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” Unit–4 UNIT 4: JOHN DONNE: “THE GOOD MORROW” AND “THE CANONIZATION” UNIT STRUCTURE 4.1 Learning Objectives 4.2 Introduction 4.3 The Text of the Poem 4.3.1 Explanation of the Poem 4.4 The Text of the Poem 4.4.1 Explanation of the Poem 4.5 Poetic Style 4.6 Let us Sum up 4.7 Further Reading 4.8 Answer to Check Your Progress 4.9 Model Questions 4.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After going through the unit, you will be able to: discuss the poems "The Good Morrow" and "The Canonization" in details analyse the style and language employed in the poem further explore the poetry of John Donne 4.2 INTRODUCTION Poetry has often been claimed as a product of the heart, that is, an expression of emotions which has very little to do with the intellect. But would it not be wonderful if somebody wrote poems that would strike a balance between the emotion and the intellect? John Donne's poetry blends these two faculties and has been acclaimed by T.S Eliot as a poet practising a 'unified sensibility'. The prescribed poem, “The Good Morrow”, appears in Donne's collection of poems, Songs and Sonnets (1633). Written at a time when the sonnet form had earned popularity in England, under the patronage English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) 45 Unit–4 John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” of Queen Elizabeth, this poem is often identified as a sonnet. However, it does not observe the traditional sonnet pattern consisting of fourteen lines, since it consists of twenty-one lines (divided into three stanzas). John Donne's poetry did not appeal to a large readership at that time because it was a deviation from the existing tradition of Elizabethan poetry tradition that harped mostly on courtly love traditions and unrequited love. It was a blend of wit and levity- a combination that not many readers could appreciate. Moreover, his exclusive use of the 'metaphysical conceit' lent his poetry a cerebral dimension that demanded a proper amount of concentration on the reader's part. Dr. Johnson speaks rather sarcastically about the metaphysical conceit, that it is an analogy where, "… most heterogeneous things are yoked by violence together." However, it is the same conceit that appealed to modernist poets, and T.S. Eliot has made a commendable use of this stylistic device in his own poetry. The poem in question is about a lover waking up to a bright morning and his feelings at seeing his beloved sleeping beside him. The poem is a celebration of spiritual love, which is much above the mundane, physical love, and therefore, such love aspires to transcend boundaries of different 'hemispheres' and remain immortal. 4.3 THE TEXT OF THE POEM The Good Morrow 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; 46 English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” Unit–4 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. 4.3.1 Explanation of the Poem This poem in question, "The Good Morrow" deals with a mature theme and hence, it occupies the first place among his other poems in his 1633 collection Songs and Sonnets. The poem conjures up a vivid image of two lovers waking up to a bright morning and wishing each other 'good morrow'. It is in the form of an 'aubade', a song or a poem recounting the experience of lovers waking up after a night of lovemaking. It encapsulates the lover's intense feelings for his beloved and his subtle regret at having met each other late in life. He wonders what they had been doing before falling in love. The speaker creates an idyllic, remote pastoral milieu where he wakes up to a morning, beside his beloved. He says that until falling in love, he and his beloved had merely been wasting their time. The lover imagines that all this while, they had been 'sucking' leisurely at 'country pleasures' or the rural bliss, i.e., enjoying unrefined, uncouth pleasures. The image of 'weaning' has been adopted to give the reader a feel of childlike innocence that shelters in the minds of English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) 47 Unit–4 John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” the two lovers. It is the process of familiarising to food other than mother's milk. The allusion to the legend of the 'Seven Sleepers' reinforces the idea that all experiences of life before experiencing love were comparable to a long and deep sleep. However, the speaker also confesses that within this time frame, if he had 'fancied' anybody, it was his beloved's dream. The lovers here seem to wake up from their deep slumber and the first thing they do is to wish their souls 'good morning'. The speaker acknowledges love as an all pervasive force that controls other 'sights' and exists everywhere. The lovers are so happy and satisfied with one another that for them the little room in which they lie becomes the whole world. All they care for now is one another's company, and nothing more. The geographical and other metaphors used here go on to develop more force in the next stanza. The accelerated growth of 'meaning' or significance is an important feature of Donne's poetry. The speaker refers to geographical and climactic dimensions- a reference that would give the reader an idea of how intense and omnipotent their love is. The face of his beloved becomes his mirror where her eyes reflect him, and vice versa. These are the two worlds they possess. There is a comparison of the eyes with hemispheres which clearly delineates the transcendental quality of love. According to the lover, theirs is a world familiar and calm. In the poem the words 'declining west' possibly refers to the sunset. Then he brings in the subject of mixing elements- a phenomenon in chemistry. He argues that whatever rots was not blended properly, in exact equations, in the first place. But now that they have come together, their love is a perfect blend that would defeat the ravages of time and therefore, would never die. 48 English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” Unit–4 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Q1. Choose the correct answer: a. The legend of the Seven Sleepers is: i. Pagan ii. Catholic iii. Secular iv. None of the above Answer:……..............................................................……….. b. The speaker in the poem acknowledges the north hemisphere as: i. Benevolent ii. Friendly iii. Cold and hostile iv. Warm Answer: ………………............................................................. Q2. Name the volume of poetry in which “The Good Morrow” by John Donne is included. 4.4 THE TEXT OF THE POEM The Canonization For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love, Or chide my palsy, or my gout, My five grays hairs, or my ruined fortune flout, With wealth your state, your minds with arts improve, Take you a course, get you a place, Observe his honor, or his grace, Or the king's real, or stamped face Contemplate; what you will approve' English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) 49 Unit–4 John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” So you will let me love. Alas, alas, who's injured by my love? What merchant's ships have my sighs drowned? Who says my tears have overflowed his ground? When did my colds a forward spring remove? When did the heats which my veins fill Add one more to the plague bill? Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move, Though she and I do love. Call us what you will, we are made such by love; Call her one, me another fly, We're tapers too, and at our own cost die, And we in us find the eagle and the dove. The phoenix riddle hath more wit By us; we two being one, are it. So to one neutral one, both sexes fit. We die and rise the same, and prove Mysteriously by this love. We can die by it, if not live by love, And if unfit for tombs and hearse Our legend be, it will be fit for verse; And if no piece of chronicle we prove, We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms; As well a well-wrought urn becomes The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs, And by these hymns, all shall approve Us canonized for love. And thus invoke us: "You whom reverend love Made one another's hermitage; You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage; Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove Into the glasses of your eyes 50 English Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Block 1) John Donne: “The Good Morrow” And “The Canonization” Unit–4 (So made such mirrors, and such spies, That they did all to you epitomize) Countries, town, courts: beg from above A pattern of your love!" 4.4.1 Explanation of the Poem 'Canonization' is a famous poem by John Donne where he aspires to make his love for his beloved divine and immortal so as to be declared as saints in the religion of love.
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