Compiled, designed and circulated by: Prof. Milan Mondal, Department of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC) – SEM-I- C2T – The Good Morrow
(Important) line by line discussions: —
“Where can we finde two better hemispheres Without sharpe North, without declining west?”
The lines quoted above are taken from The Good Morrow by John Donne – one of the most powerful poets in English Literature. The poet proves here the superiority of mutual love over all other things of the universe.
In the world of life with love and in the life without love there is clearly a distinction between the two. Donne brings images of the two hemispheres of the World in comparison between the two. Ne two hemispheres of the world are imperfect. The North pole shows the depression on its surface and in the Western region where the sun goes down which is the symbol of pollution and decadence. But the faces of the lovers there are two perfect hemispheres where mutuality and spirituality are linked to the physical features and all is one in love. The image also brings out the suggestion that love knows no decay as is relevant from depression or declining with the North Pole and Western region. The corruption and mortality of love are absent when
‘The Good Morrow’ emerges in a world of perfection of love.
The lines bear out the characteristic metaphysical style in which conceits abound Donne’s comparison of two lovers to two hemispheres sharply brings out one of his conceits. Again, the metaphysical singular gift of comparing the sublime to the common place is found here in the analogy between devoted love and the geographical account of two ‘hemispheres’, ‘without sharpe North, without declining West. ‘
“My face in thine eye, thine in my appeares, And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest.”
Compiled, designed and circulated by: Prof. Milan Mondal, Department of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC) – SEM-I- C2T – The Good Morrow
The lines quoted above are taken from The Good Morrow by John Donne – one of the most powerful poets in English Literature. In these lines the poet clearly depicts the reality of ove in the life of love. Life with love now does interfere with love in reality. The lines emphasize the spiritual awakening up which is associated with love and that the lovers are achieved.
In the world of love there is individuality and oneness is developed by miraculous complexity of love. The individuality is completely merged in the cosmic world of love. The two are so deeply merged in spiritual reality that one face lies in other lover’s eye. The hearts are plain and the faces sublime. The world of the lovers is clearly realised if we follow the lines in ‘Chaitanya Charitammrita’ immediately before death of St. Haridas who places his eyes on the eye of Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya. In the mortality of the world this type of spiritual awakening of love and the beloved like St. Haridas and Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya is rarely felt. In Donne’s The Good Morrow we realise the same type of expression, “My faces in thine eye, thine in my appeares.’ In the spiritual world the life without love and life with love are mixed as a homogeneous whole.
The oneness of the lovers has been` narrated very carefully in the last stanza of the poem.
The most unique point is a combination of the body and the heart which are linked in love into one singleness apart from any passionate desire in The Good Morrow. In the religious literature of India, specially the ‘Vedanta’ and in numerous religious books of the ‘Baisnabas’ this eternity of love and lovers’ oneness with Bramha as the Ultimate Reality has been very nicely put up by Donne in his verse The Good Morrow.
“Let sea – discoveres to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, world on worlds have showne Let us possesse one world, each hath one, and is one.”
The lines quoted above are taken from The Good Morrow by John Donne – one of the most powerful poets in English Literature. The poet addresses his lady love and assures her of the constancy of their love through some subtle imagery, characteristics of metaphysical poetry.
Compiled, designed and circulated by: Prof. Milan Mondal, Department of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC) – SEM-I- C2T – The Good Morrow
The lovers dreamt of a life where both of them would be in a land of indivisible integrity.
He hails the realization as an advent of good morrow both the souls arc waking after the feeling of the criteria of distinction between life without love and life with love. Apparently, Donne compares that the exploration of love and its endlessness is unlike explorations on navigation or cartography which belong to the ephemeral world. In fact, according to Donne exploration of any type on earth is a separate world which may change their scope of wideness but the exploration of the lovers' world is endless. It is merged with one another. This oneness evidently recalls us on the realization of 'Bramha' which is one and without any divisibility. It is one and only one that lives for ever. The poet speaks of oneness of love in a world of their own. This oneness maybe explained as a metaphysical union between the lover and the beloved in their life without love and life with love. The world of love is greater than everything else in the world. This world is the world of Infinity. It is full of pleasure because of the possession of one world of both.
The entire passage bears out the novelty of the metaphysical technique. The singleness of the lovers through their devoted love is quite impressively shown in the imagery of sea discoveres and naps. This is as already indicated, characteristic of metaphysical conceits.
Compiled, designed and circulated by: Prof. Milan Mondal, Department of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC) – SEM-I- C2T – The Good Morrow
Essay type question- answer: —
1. Write a brief essay on Metaphysical love poetry with special reference to The Good Morrow.
Or,
Do you think Donne affects metaphysics in his love poem? Discuss with illustration from The Good Morrow.
The term metaphysical denotes a class of seventeenth century poets – Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Avraham Cowley, Edmund Waller, Crashaw, Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew who share certain common characteristics like – argumentative design, strong line verse employment of conceits, employment of wit, head-mind intellect, dramatic opening and invocation or experimentation in language and rhythm.
The Good Morrow like The Flea, The Anniversarie and The Sunne Rising begins in abrupt dramatic manner. Infact, there are four interrogative sentences, all suggesting a series of questions, indicating that the life before falling in love was unsubstantial.
The poem, as a whole, celebrates the glory of mutual love. The reader is held on to a single line of argument through out the poem. With the help of heterogeneous but very relevant ideas the speaker proves the superiority of mutual love over all other things of the universe. A love has brought a new dawn to the life of lovers. It has ennobled their very being• As a result all previou pleasures now appear to the lover as unsubstantial are. Observation of natural beauty of country side as fancie to them crude ‘countrey pleasures.’ It is so childish appear as sucking the milk from the mother’s breast by the infant. Sincerity and loyalty mark this mutual love. The lovers are so absorbed in one another that they need no help of any other pleasure – ‘For love, all love of other sights controules’. Moreover, the world of the lovers may be very small but it is distinguished by comfort and security. Moreover, it is not s tic, but dynamic. It builds a ‘roome, an everywhere.’
Compiled, designed and circulated by: Prof. Milan Mondal, Department of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC) – SEM-I- C2T – The Good Morrow
The ecstasy experienced by the lover in discovering each other is superi6r to the ecstasy experienced by the sea-explore when they discovered a new land. Further more, the world of lovers is free from the fear of jealousy, greed and suspicion which trouble us in our day to day life. It is again superior to the external world because it is free from death and decay.
A critic is of the opinion that Donne is metaphysical more for his manner than for his matter. In the present poem The Good Morrow we come across a succession of conceits showing the poet’s erudition and acquaintance with various aspects of life. In the first section Donne makes use of the conceits of sleeping and waking, weaning and sucking, ‘countrey pleasure’ and refined pleasure, ‘seven sleepers den’ and dreaming. In the second section we come across conceits like room all absorbing love and love of other sights, the ecstasy of sea-exploration and love-making.
In the concluding section we find conceits of fear and two hemispheres, ‘sharpe North’ and
‘declining west’ and the scholastic philosophy of St. Aquinas. The presence of all conceits serves to make this love poem a veritable cerebral exercise.
The poem is also metaphysical in the sense that here there is no time worn diction and rhythm. The poet attempts to find fresh idiom and rhythm to communicate the theme of mutual love. The magic in which ‘thou’ and ‘I’ are merged into ‘we’ is sought to be communicated with rare immediacy of feeling and manner. Thus, judging from all these angels it can easily be asserted that the poem under discussion is a ne plus ultra specimen of metaphysical poetry.
