The Good Morrow Analysis

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John Donne “The Good Morrow” Analysis The Good-Morrow,” published in poet John Donne’s 1633 collection entitled “Songs and Sonnets,” speaks from the viewpoint of a lover as he arises in the morning and sees the face of his partner next to him. The emotions conveyed by the narrator ranges from passion to a spiritual experience free of fear and anxiety. Donne uses vivid language and religious references to denote how the narrator’s loves for his partner morphs with the passage of time. The narrator in “The Good-Morrow” recounts a religious traditional tale to express how this love has somehow emboldened him. He talks about the Catholic tale of “the Seven Sleepers’ den” (line 4). The legend of the “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus” tells the story of seven Christian children hiding in a cave to escape persecution during the reign of Roman Emperor Decius. They fall asleep and wake up 200 years later during the reign of Theodosius II. Thus, Donne compares their slumber to the long sleep of the Seven Sleepers and their bravery to how love has changed him. The love the narrator expresses for his partner is so great that he feels that he has no need to explore other worlds. He says, “Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown, let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one” (lines 13, 14). In essence, the narrator tells others that they can explore other worlds. He has found the one world he wants and does not need maps to find anything else. The words signify the passion often felt at the beginning of a love story, when nothing else seems to matter. The narrator’s love becomes more than passion, in which he thinks of his lover as the only world he wants to explore. It becomes an intimate, spiritual bond between the two. The poem reads, “My face in thine eyes, thine in mine appears, and true plain hearts do in the faces rest” (line 15, 16). The narrator tells
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