The Good Morrow

The Good Morrow
John Donne was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He is
considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for
their strong, sensual style, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His
poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared
to that of his contemporaries.
The Good-Morrow details his feelings about one of his loves. The Good-Morrow is about love in
the highest order. The poem consists of three stanzas, each of consisting 7 lines.
This poem begins with the confusion of early morning consciousness and the dawning of true
love which brings to the poet’s notice the incompleteness of his past encounters with make-
believe beauties, “I wonder by my troth, what thou and I did till we loved”. Before Donne
had met his beloved, his idea of beauty was only physical and hence very abstract and
unfulfilling. He rejects his past with passionate contempt but his disgust mellows when he
realizes that the carnal took him to the spiritual. Being united with his beloved has actualized the
abstract entity of his desires as she has fused his physical love with its philosophical counter-part
making it divine and beautiful. In an extraordinary metaphysical conceit, this complete love is
given the status of mother’s milk whereas his indulgences in “country pleasures” have been
described as weaning to shed light upon the importance of a relationship between the body and
soul, “Were we not weaned till then but suck’d on country pleasures childishly?”. Here, he
has made use of metaphor in the second line of the poem, “Were we not weaned till then?”,
where he metaphorically compares himself to an infant and shooing off his past affairs on the
pretense of his innocence. Donne has also made use of a biblical allusion in the 4th line of the
poem, “Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers den?” Donne, also metaphorically compares their
slumber to the long sleep of the Seven Sleepers and their bravery to how love has changed him.
However, the second stanza begins in the manner of an au-bade, “And now good morrow to
our waking souls”. Here the physical act of waking up has been compared to spiritual
awakening.
The love of the narrator for his partner continues growing to the point where he thinks it is
enduring. He says, “If our two loves be one, or, thou and I love so alike, that none do
slacken, none can die”. Donne tells us as to how much their love has grown to the point where
the two of them are like one person. Then, he tells readers that the love is so strong that it will
continue and not die. The love has continued growing for the narrator.
Donne is said to a metaphysical poet and “The Good Morrow” is a prime example of one of
Donne’s metaphysical poems. Like many of his other metaphysical poems, Good morrow has
realistic setting. Donne has shed light upon the quintessence and unparalleled beauty of the true
love which he and his beloved share by taking help from his metaphysical wit in this poem
which speaks volumes about his credibility as a metaphysical poet. Donne has compared the
transfiguring effect of love and its macrocosmic spread with the discoveries of Drake, Magellan
and Columbus. His pre-love days where he was deprived of true beauty has been compared to
slumber in “The seven sleeper’s den”. In these conceits two very heterogeneous entities have
been violently fused in a single matrix, the unlikeness of which strikes us more than its justness,
which is exactly what metaphysical poetry stands for. These conceits which are far-fetched and
hyperbolic are also responsible for providing Good Morrow with a certain level of insignificance
and novelty of thought which is what the metaphysical poets strived to attain in their
poetry. Donne has described his beloved as one made of flesh and blood with whom he has
enjoyed satisfying moments of love. Good Morrow showcases this trait as well because of its
extreme heterogeneity of references to many branches of learning such as geography, astronomy,
mythology and so on. By comparing the quintessence of his love in a metaphysical conceit to the
fifth element, he has drawn a parallel from medieval alchemy “Whatever dies was not mixt
equally”. All in all, Donne uses makes immense use of metaphysics in order to describe about
his never-ending and growing love.

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