Critical Appreciation of the poem The Good Morrow| BRITISH POETRY | MEG-1 | BLOCK - 3

 

            John Donne (22 January, 1572-31 March, 1631) was an English scholar, poet and soldier. He was Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires. He is also known for sermons.

                    Donne's treatment of love is entirely unconventional. His poems are the expression in unconventional and witty language of all the moods of a lover. Dryden says, 

"He affects metaphysics not only in his satires but also in his amorous verses....and perplexes the minds of fairsex with nice speculation of philosophy..."

The Good-Morrow is an exquisite piece of metaphysical poetry. Donne wrote it at a comparatively early age and the poem was published in a collection entitled as “Songs and Sonnets”.

 

                    The Good-Morrow is a poem of twenty-one lines divided into three stanzas, each stanza consisting of seven lines. The rhyme scheme of each of the stanzas is ababccc. The poet addresses the woman he loves as they awaken after having spent the night together. The poem opens with a surprise, which has been promoted to dependence in love in the middle part of the poem. In the end of the poem, the love has been given immortality. Arguments have been used to develop the theme. The poem conforms to the tradition of metaphysical poetry in its development of thought. It opens dramatically.

 

    1^st satanza

Its sudden conversational opening arrests the attention of the readers. Then follow several questions implying the surprise of the speaker at the discovery that they had already been in love before they became aware of it. The innocence of love at this stage has been suggested by a comparison with the breast-fed babies. The unconscious state of the lovers has been suggested by a comparison with the “seven sleepers”. Then the lover assures his beloved saying that all his imagination about love was centered round her.

 

    2^nd Stanza

In the second stanza, the lover very confidently invites his beloved to welcome their love. He compares each of them to two separate worlds and says that they together constitute a single world. In this stanza he generalizes that pure love saves a lover from falling in love with any other person.

 

    3^rd Stanza

In the third stanza, the lover again admits that they are separate individuals but he emphasizes the inseparable union of their souls. The union of the souls, he confidently demands, will continue even after death. Thus, the theme of love of this poem develops logically from surprise to confidence and then to immortality.

 

 

    The Good Morrow -- A Metaphysical Love Poem

Donne's poem The Good Morrow is a typical metaphysical love poem. Here the poet as a lover bids good morning to his beloved whom he has met after both were awakened from a long slumber and is consumed with the passion of love. He speaks of the time before their first meeting. He wonders how they had lived before before they met each other. The poet suggests that till they fell in love with each other, they were like infants or the unsophisticated people who enjoy only rustic pleasures. It may be that they had slept a long sleep before they met each other. He is sure that he always dreamed of his beloved.

 

    Logical Development of Thought in the Poem

There is a logical development of thought which is a characteristic feature of metaphysical poetry. The poet follows the device of what Helen Gardner calls 'contraction', or 'intellectual analysis of emotion'. 

The first stanza describes the contrast between a life without love and a life of all absorbing love. In the subsequent stanzas, Donne advances argument after argument to drive his poem home. The poet concludes that as their souls have awakened to a new life, they become absorbed to each other. They are united by love. He suggests that it is only through such love that immortality can be attained.

 

A reader coming from the smooth fluency and mellifluous sweetness of the Elizabethan love poetry is sure to be struck by certain qualities of this poem.

 

    Uses of Conceits

Donne's using of extravagant conceits, in which the poet's thought is clothed, is the most striking thing about this poem. The conceits are drawn from a wide range of experience and learning. They starkle the reader and make his head reel. The conceits are drawn from various sources. The conceit of 'seven sleepers den' refers to a legend. According to this legend, seven Christian youths sought shelter in a cave to escape the persecution of the Persian emperor Decius. They fell into a miraculous sleep and awoke after three centuries. There are also references to Geography. 'Sea-discoverers', 'Maps', 'hemispheres' are taken from Geography. When the poet says, "Whatever dies, was not mixed equally", he refers to scholastic philosophy. The comparison between the lovers and two suggests metaphysical wit, because here we find the ordinary and extraordinary, the small and sublime.

    Uses of Imagery and Poetic Style

Various images are taken from various sources, but they have been fused into a coherent whole. The poem thus provides a fine instance of 'unification of sensibility', for which T.S. Eliot praised the metaphysical poet. The poem also contains the mixture of the splendid and the colloquial-- another characteristic of metaphysical poetry--colloquialism is imported to the poem by the use of the words like; 'suck'd', 'snorted' etc.

Sensation, emotion and thought are here interfused in the poem in an admirable manner. The poem reminds us of Geierson's remark about Donne. 

In Geierson's opinion, 

"Donne is primarily a poet, a creature of feeling and imagination whose acute and subtle intellect is the servant of passion and imagination, though sometimes an unruly servant." 

Donne becomes highly emotional when he says--

"If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die."

 

 

The images of the poem are vivid. There are pictures of breast fed babies, snorting seven sleepers and hemispheres. All these images have been used to suggest the unique nature of the love in the poem. The images, no doubt, reveal the poet’s capacity of making scholarly images.

 

    Poetic Devices Enhancing Emotional Depth

Throughout the poem, Donne employs various poetic devices to convey his message. He uses imagery, metaphor, and personification to evoke powerful emotions and create a sense of depth and richness in the poem. His language is rich and vibrant, filled with vivid descriptions and evocative phrases.

 

    Tone and Theme Evolution in the Poem

The poem is free from bitterness, grief and cynicism. There is neither disappointment nor disgust. A note of contentment runs through the poem. In the beginning the tone is of surprise, then it shifts to contentment, and finally, to spirituality. Moreover, its theme has been developed through passionate arguments, and here it differs from a dramatic monologue.

 

Joan Bennet puts it, 

"Donne's love poetry is not about the difference between marriage and adultery, but about the difference between lust and love".

 

 

                    In conclusion, "The Good Morrow" is a profound exploration of love and its transformative power. Through vivid imagery and rich language, Donne portrays love as a force that awakens the soul and brings meaning to life. The poem invites readers to contemplate the transcendent nature of love and its ability to illuminate the human experience.