"The Good-Morrow"
I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?
T'was so; but this, all pleasures fancies bee;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, T'was but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another out of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little roome, an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plaine hearts do in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares,
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mix'd equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.
Writer: John Donne.
Published: 1633 (posthumously).
Collection: Songs and Sonnets.
Lines: 21 lines in total.
Stanzas: 3 stanzas, each of which is a septet (seven lines).
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCC for each stanza.
Rhythm/Meter: The poem exhibits rhythmic variety; the first six lines of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter, while the final line of each stanza follows an iambic hexameter.
Line by line explain
Stanza I: Reflection on the Past
Line 1: "I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I"The speaker begins with an interrogative structure that stirs the reader's imagination, questioning the nature of their existence before they fell in love. The use of "troth" (truth or faith) establishes a serious, quasi-religious tone for this inquiry.
Line 2: "Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?"
The speaker compares their life before love to intellectual infancy or a state of being "not wean'd," suggesting they were mere children before this realization.
Line 3: "But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?"
Continuing the infancy motif, the speaker characterizes their past pursuits as "childishly" sucking on simple, rural, or "country" pleasures.
Line 4: "Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?"
This contains a striking Biblical allusion to seven Christian youths from Ephesus who slept in a cave for roughly two hundred years to escape persecution. The speaker uses this to compare the numbness and innocence of their pre-love life to this legendary deep slumber.
Line 5: "T'was so; but this, all pleasures fancies bee;"
The speaker concludes that their past life was indeed a sleep, and all former pleasures were merely "fancies" or unreal shadows compared to their current experience.
Line 6: "If ever any beauty I did see,"
The speaker reflects on any previous encounters with beauty or desire.
Lines 7: "Which I desir'd, and got, / T'was but a dream of thee."
Using hyperbolic language, the speaker claims that any beauty previously "desir'd and got" was not a reality but merely a premonition or "dream" of the beloved. This designates his former life as futile and wasteful compared to the "fruitful" post-love reality.
Stanza II: The Awakening
Line 8: "And now good-morrow to our waking soules,"The speaker greets their "waking soules" in an abstract and spiritual sense, celebrating a "new dawn" of mutual adoration.
Line 9: "Which watch not one another out of feare;"
In this state of awakened love, the lovers watch each other with complete trust rather than suspicion or jealousy.
Line 10: "For love, all love of other sights controules,"
True love is described as having the power to "controul" or dominate the senses, making the lovers indifferent to any external distractions.
Line 11: "And makes one little roome, an everywhere."
This is a famous metaphysical conceit using spatial imagery to argue that their private, physical space has expanded to become an all-encompassing universe.
Line 12: "Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;" The speaker dismisses the great explorers of the age, suggesting their literal discoveries of "new worlds" are irrelevant compared to the lovers' world.
Line 13: "Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,"
He suggests that cartography and the discovery of multiple "worlds" should be left to "others," as they do not concern the speaker.
Line 14: "Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one." This reflects a pantheistic fusion of lover and beloved, where each individual is a world, and together they possess a singular, self-sufficient universe.
Stanza III: Unity and Immortality
Line 15: "My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears," The use of parallelism (a surprisingly identical sentence structure) creates a vivid image of mutual reflection and spiritual unity.
Line 16: "And true plaine hearts do in the faces rest," The speaker suggests total transparency and honesty between them; their "hearts" are clearly visible in their expressions.
Line 17: "Where can we finde two better hemispheares" The lovers are compared to "two better hemispheares," a metaphysical conceit where they form a perfect globe that surpasses the physical earth.
Line 18: "Without sharpe North, without declining West?" Through further parallelism, the speaker identifies their world as lacking the "sharpness" of the North (a cold spatial location) or the "declining" West (symbolizing the sunset and the passage of time).
Line 19: "What ever dyes, was not mix'd equally;" Drawing on quasi-philosophical logic, the speaker argues that death or deterioration is only the result of an imbalance in parts.
Lines 20-21: "If our two loves be one, or, thou and I / Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die."
This final volta (a turn in thought) reveals the central conceit: because their loves are perfectly balanced and unified, their bond—and thus the lovers themselves—attains immortality and cannot die.
The poem is framed as an address to a lover, presumably at a moment when the relationship is new or has reached a state of total mutual realization. Donne doesn't merely describe a feeling; he dissects love, examining its physical and spiritual dimensions and its capacity for creating a self-sufficient universe.
Structural and Linguistic Framework
The poem is meticulously organized into three stanzas, each of which is a septet (seven lines). Donne utilizes a rhyme scheme of ABABCCC for each stanza, though some interpretations note variations in the pattern. A key feature of the poem’s rhythm is its variety: the first six lines of each stanza follow iambic pentameter, while the final line expands into an iambic hexameter. This structural choice provides a sense of rhythmic expansion, mirroring the "enlarging" of the mind and soul discussed in the text.
Linguistically, the poem is rich with archaic spellings and obsolete terms common to the Neoclassical period, such as "countrey," "soules," "feare," and "hemispheares". Donne employs poetic license to use unusual contractions like "Lov’d," "Wean’d," and "Suck’d," which add a specific "spark" and texture to the verse. At the grammatical level, the poem uses well-formed structures where lexical choices—including abstract nouns like "troth" and "beauty"—assist in transferring the central idea of integrated emotional and physical love.
The first stanza serves as a reflection on the state the lovers inhabited before they found one another. Spoken from a distance of newfound maturity, the speaker wonders, "I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I / Did, till we lov'd?". He characterizes their former life as a kind of extended childhood or intellectual infancy, asking if they were "not wean’d till then" or if they "suck’d on countrey pleasures, childishly".
To emphasize the numbness of this prior existence, Donne utilizes a striking Biblical allusion to the "Seven Sleepers' den". This refers to seven Christian youths from Ephesus who fled persecution by Emperor Decius and slept in a cave for many years; Donne uses this to contrast the "numbness" of his pre-love life with his current freshly awakened soul. He concludes that any "beauty" he previously desired and "got" was merely a "dream of thee". This represents the first hyperbole of the poem, where the poet designates his entire former life as futile and wasteful compared to the "fruitful" reality of his current adoration.
The second stanza shifts from the past to the present, offering a greeting to the couple's "waking soules". This "waking" is intended in a broad, abstract, and spiritual sense. The speaker notes that these souls "watch not one another out of feare," because true love "controules" the desire to look at any other sights.
A core metaphysical conceit is introduced here: the idea that love "makes one little roome, an everywhere". Donne uses sensory and spatial imagery to argue that their love transcends the material world. In a display of hyperbolic wit, he dismisses the great explorers of his age: "Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone... Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one". To Donne, the navigators and cartographers are "wasting their time" because the speaker is the sole possessor of a complete world in the person of his beloved. This reflects the pantheistic notion of the fusion of lover and beloved, where their mutual presence creates a self-contained universe.
The final stanza returns from the broader world to focus on the pair themselves. It begins with the vivid imagery of mutual reflection: "My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears". This use of parallelism—structuring sentences to be surprisingly identical—serves as a linguistic reminder that the two lovers have become a unified soul.
The speaker then proposes a conceit based on geography: "Where can we finde two better hemispheares / Without sharpe North, without declining West?". Here, the lovers are compared to a perfect globe that lacks the defects of the physical earth, such as the "sharpness" of the North or the "decline" of the West (the direction of the sunset and the passage of time). This world exists in the "third term" created between "thou and I"—the love that expresses their absolute unity.
The poem concludes with a quasi-philosophical argument regarding immortality: "What ever dyes, was not mix'd equally". Drawing on the idea that deterioration is the result of imbalance, the speaker argues that if their "two loves be one," or if they love so "alike" that neither slackens, then their love—and consequently the lovers themselves—cannot die. This final stanza contains a volta (a turn in thought), common to the sonnet form, which reveals the central conceit and the depth of the lovers’ bond.
Summary
John Donne’s "The Good-Morrow" stands as one of the most significant works of metaphysical poetry, first published posthumously in the 1633 collection Songs and Sonnets. The poem orbits around the central idea of timeless, soulful love, portraying a nascent experience of endearment that is so fertile it transforms a previously monotonous life into something magnificent. It is characterized by intellectual rigor, startling imagery, and a profound exploration of human experience that moves beyond the traditional conventions of courtly love.The poem is framed as an address to a lover, presumably at a moment when the relationship is new or has reached a state of total mutual realization. Donne doesn't merely describe a feeling; he dissects love, examining its physical and spiritual dimensions and its capacity for creating a self-sufficient universe.
Structural and Linguistic Framework
The poem is meticulously organized into three stanzas, each of which is a septet (seven lines). Donne utilizes a rhyme scheme of ABABCCC for each stanza, though some interpretations note variations in the pattern. A key feature of the poem’s rhythm is its variety: the first six lines of each stanza follow iambic pentameter, while the final line expands into an iambic hexameter. This structural choice provides a sense of rhythmic expansion, mirroring the "enlarging" of the mind and soul discussed in the text.
Linguistically, the poem is rich with archaic spellings and obsolete terms common to the Neoclassical period, such as "countrey," "soules," "feare," and "hemispheares". Donne employs poetic license to use unusual contractions like "Lov’d," "Wean’d," and "Suck’d," which add a specific "spark" and texture to the verse. At the grammatical level, the poem uses well-formed structures where lexical choices—including abstract nouns like "troth" and "beauty"—assist in transferring the central idea of integrated emotional and physical love.
The first stanza serves as a reflection on the state the lovers inhabited before they found one another. Spoken from a distance of newfound maturity, the speaker wonders, "I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I / Did, till we lov'd?". He characterizes their former life as a kind of extended childhood or intellectual infancy, asking if they were "not wean’d till then" or if they "suck’d on countrey pleasures, childishly".
To emphasize the numbness of this prior existence, Donne utilizes a striking Biblical allusion to the "Seven Sleepers' den". This refers to seven Christian youths from Ephesus who fled persecution by Emperor Decius and slept in a cave for many years; Donne uses this to contrast the "numbness" of his pre-love life with his current freshly awakened soul. He concludes that any "beauty" he previously desired and "got" was merely a "dream of thee". This represents the first hyperbole of the poem, where the poet designates his entire former life as futile and wasteful compared to the "fruitful" reality of his current adoration.
The second stanza shifts from the past to the present, offering a greeting to the couple's "waking soules". This "waking" is intended in a broad, abstract, and spiritual sense. The speaker notes that these souls "watch not one another out of feare," because true love "controules" the desire to look at any other sights.
A core metaphysical conceit is introduced here: the idea that love "makes one little roome, an everywhere". Donne uses sensory and spatial imagery to argue that their love transcends the material world. In a display of hyperbolic wit, he dismisses the great explorers of his age: "Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone... Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one". To Donne, the navigators and cartographers are "wasting their time" because the speaker is the sole possessor of a complete world in the person of his beloved. This reflects the pantheistic notion of the fusion of lover and beloved, where their mutual presence creates a self-contained universe.
The final stanza returns from the broader world to focus on the pair themselves. It begins with the vivid imagery of mutual reflection: "My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears". This use of parallelism—structuring sentences to be surprisingly identical—serves as a linguistic reminder that the two lovers have become a unified soul.
The speaker then proposes a conceit based on geography: "Where can we finde two better hemispheares / Without sharpe North, without declining West?". Here, the lovers are compared to a perfect globe that lacks the defects of the physical earth, such as the "sharpness" of the North or the "decline" of the West (the direction of the sunset and the passage of time). This world exists in the "third term" created between "thou and I"—the love that expresses their absolute unity.
The poem concludes with a quasi-philosophical argument regarding immortality: "What ever dyes, was not mix'd equally". Drawing on the idea that deterioration is the result of imbalance, the speaker argues that if their "two loves be one," or if they love so "alike" that neither slackens, then their love—and consequently the lovers themselves—cannot die. This final stanza contains a volta (a turn in thought), common to the sonnet form, which reveals the central conceit and the depth of the lovers’ bond.
Thematic Analysis: The Fusion of Sacred and Profane
Donne’s treatment of love in "The Good-Morrow" is unconventional because it rejects the idealized, often suffering-focused tropes of the Petrarchan tradition. Instead, he presents love as a messy, complicated, but ultimately transcendent state of being.A recurring theme is the tension between sacred and profane love. Donne frequently uses religious imagery to describe physical desire, creating a sense of ecstasy that blurs the lines between the two. By using scientific and geographical analogies (such as "hemispheres" and "maps"), he provides a rational, intellectual basis for his emotional claims, suggesting that a love based on unwavering fidelity is as resilient as the laws of the physical universe.
Conclusion
"The Good-Morrow" is a masterpiece of stylistic manifestation that uses hyperboles, conceits, and allusions to help the reader interpret the profound themes dwelling within the text. Through its three-stage progression—awakening, exploration, and fulfillment—the poem illustrates how a soulful union can create a "new world" that is superior to the physical one. Donne’s legacy in this poem lies in his ability to capture the full spectrum of human emotion with intellectual precision, establishing a vision of love as a state of perpetual "waking" and guaranteed immortality.