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About

Genius Annotation

“The Sun Rising” is one of John Donne’s best-known love poems. It describes how the morning sun disturbs and threatens to cut short the time the speaker, we may assume Donne himself, can spend in bed with his lover. The central idea is that the couple’s love is greater than the power of the sun.

In the true style of the Metaphysical Poets Donne uses the characteristic imaginative and sometimes bizarre imagery. Donne lived in an era when the world was opening to exploration, both scientific and geographical. So, as well as the central metaphysical “conceit” of the extended sun imagery, he refers to spices from India, and compares his lover to “all states” while he is “all princes”. Readers need to open their minds and enjoy the inventiveness.

The Sun Rising is essentially a romantic poem about love, and a celebration of the woman with whom Donne is in bed.

Structure
The poem follows a complicated metrical pattern, which is repeated in each of the three ten-lined stanzas. If one counts the number of syllables per line the following pattern emerges. 8, 4, 10, 10, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10. There are half the number of stresses per line than there are syllables. Donne seems to have invented this specifically for his poem.
The poem also follows a regular but complicated rhyme scheme; ABBACDCDEE, repeated in each stanza.

Language and Imagery
As stated above the central conceit is that of the sun interrupting the lovers' morning sleep. Their love has enlarged them so that they represent the world. The lovers seem to have a personal relationship with the sun, while everything else is diminished. Donne makes liberal use of hyperbole, that is exaggeration, and litotes, understatement. The essence is that nothing in the world matters, everything is diminished, apart from the feeling of being in love.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

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Release Date
1633
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