This sample essay on The Sun Rising John Donne offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion are provided below.
The poem, “The Sunne Rising” written by a leading poet of the time, was a bold statement to be made in that particular era of writing. The way that Donne opens his love poem could almost be described as courageous and fearless. This can be related to the content of the poem, seeing as it is commenting on how love is all-important and both time and others beliefs mean very little to those so deeply involved.
All feel that all the language and style is placed so that it is to emphasise a point.
The language in “The Sunne Rising” is more of play on words, an example of this is where in the first line, “unruly sunne” has hidden connotations. Firstly it could mean simply that it is rebellious and undisciplined yet also the fact that the sun answers to anyone and always follows its own rules, much like the lovers that Dunne describes.
The “me first” attitude that Dunne puts across in the piece is one that adds a certain affect. “Solipsism” is Latin for this, and reflects how he is trying to make the reader see how he and his partner view the outside world.
The poem questions certain aspects of what people of the time didn’t always take for granted. For example, “spheare” is suggesting that the world be round which was a new convention at the time, a brand new idea, yet also in the last line it is defying orthodoxy by saying that the whole world revolves around him and his lover.
Dunne then finds him self in a debate with the sun, arguing that the sun isn’t all-powerful and that it can be blocked, or even a slight “eclipse” can cause the none existence of the sun.
He feels that he wins this argument because something so small, his eye, can block out something so large, the sun. “I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink” supports this statement, however Dunne says that he doesn’t use this method because he can’t see his sweetheart whilst he winks. “Thy beames, so reverend, and strong”. This is showing the suns strength, how it is worthy of a great opposition. Also how hard it must be to over come its power, yet with such a simple item, one everybody possesses but those who have ever thought as it as a tool must be few in numbers.
Nevertheless, Dunne manages to and returns to his woman. He shows himself as a caring man whom only sees his life in his bedroom, as long as his wife is there… Dunnes’ uses of innocent and simple questions to give the poem a hint of humour. It is almost like he is belittling the importance of the sun by saying how it’s so strong and holds powerful rays, however it does not affect his micro-cosmos. His micro cosmos is the world he lives in at the time the poem is set. “This bed thy center is, these walls, thy spheare. Not only does it show the ego of this man, but how he little he values the outside world too. At one stage in the poem, it is almost like he is trying to lower the King by saying whilst you’re out hunting, I’m in bed!
This is the device that Dunne uses by allowing us, the reader, to be privileged enough to enter his world by the form of closure. It seems like Dunne is trying to make you feel like his partner, see how she views him, make you experience what love in their world is all about, and just why they value it so much. Nothing else is” is saying that nothing else in their world exists, all that matters is each other and that no matter how much people try to “mimique” and even to use “alchimie” nothing can match what they both hold in their hearts. The critic Jacobs it seems is more interested in the negative aspects of this poem, he says that “nothing else is” is a reference to the thought of Dunne and his micro cosmos idea, that this is a bad school of thought and should be ridiculed for this.
On the other hand, Ruth Padel comments more on the technical side of the poem, on the rhyming pentameters and how perhaps that because it is not a true rhyme, doe the lovers really belong together in bed with each other or are they fooling around? Self on the other hand tries to make a point that Dunne is trying to make this moment last for ever, he is attempting to block out the sun there fore making this situation timeless. It is like you are immune to the outside problems once you enter their world, and see everything through the eyes of those who believe they’re in the right…
The Sunne Rising is a wonderful poem, which shows how love was viewed many years ago. It indicates that love hasn’t dated, and the ideas could quite easily be related to a couple today who have to battle with outside commitments and the sun itself, which is the only clock that will awake some in the morning. All in all, this is a well-written and courageous piece of work for the time in which it was written and if it was published in today’s modern world, I feel it would still make such an impact. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece of work, and it does relate to anybody in love.
The Sun Rising John Donne. (2019, Dec 06). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-a-critique-of-the-sunne-rising-written-by-john-donne/