Exploring the Themes in John Donne's Poem "The Good-Morrow"
“The Good-Morrow”, a metaphysical poem by John Donne defines the speaker’s experience with love. The speaker thoroughly catalogues the moments with his lover and concludes that before the formation of this deep, mature love, their lives had been innocent and naive. Now, the love they share kindles their spirits.
The speaker goes on to equate the humble bedroom they share to their own small world, the only one really worth seeing. In the first stanza, the narrator contemplates what their love was like before they loved each other. He begins with a questions, “were we not weaned till then?” He announces to his lover that before they met, all the relationships they had encountered were simply child’s play. He uses the term, “weaned,” defined by the OED as “to accustom (a child or young animal) to the loss of its mother's milk; to cause to cease to be suckled; with object a child.” The narrator compares the wide-eyed innocence of their early loves to that of babies, not yet weaned off their mother’s breast. The speaker establishes that the outlooks they associated with were childlike, and as such, “wean” denotes images of infant attachment and the gradual separation from childhood. Thus, falling in love was an unanticipated and culminating transition for them as is the weaning is for a child. Furthermore, this line suggests that before his lover, he was a helpless and has now become sophisticated in his awareness of the world. At that time, children were viewed as ignorant and naive, and these hierarchal values persisted until this love freed him from these shackles. In the second stanza, the speaker begins with a transition from the physical aspect of their relationship to the spiritual love. This deep spiritual love makes the poet and his beloved unconcerned with pleasures and luxuries of this earth. The beauty of the materialistic world does not concern them anymore, their world is the one shared between them in their bedroom. A world of pure discovery and love.
The OED defines “world” as “any state or realm of existence, esp. one regarded in contrast to that of contemporary human life, one's condition or the sphere of secular or lay life and interest”. The speaker dictates that many men voyage across seas to discover other exotic lands, none of which will ever be as important as the world created between them. He declares his love to her by comparing their bodies, together as one, in their own universe. Whether “sea-discoverers find new worlds or others explore maps” seems only an insignificant thought. The speaker and his lover’s souls and bodies are new world waiting to be explored. Again, he emphasizes the strength of their love in comparison with the physical lovers, whose solely focus on the materialistic world and often forget to enjoy the beauty in front of their eyes. The OED also defines “world” as “the state or realm of human existence on earth; those regarded as earthly and sinful; temporal or mundane affairs; those people who are concerned only with the interests and pleasures of this life or with temporal or mundane things; the worldly and irreligious”. In contrasting the “worldly” souls with him and his lover, he asserts that fear only operates in the minds of those who only share a physical connection, should one be unfaithful. However, the speaker and is lover overcome this and live in serene satisfaction. They love so deeply and devoutly that the love becomes “an everywhere”.
In the third stanza, the speaker describes the reflection of his lover in his eyes, and him in hers. This reflection, both physical and metaphorical, represents the mutual love reflected in each other’s soul. He continues with an elaboration on their world divided into two hemispheres. Hemisphere, as defined by the OED means, “A half sphere; one of the halves of a sphere or globe; half of the celestial sphere”. The narrator details the immortality of their love, no matter how divided between hemispheres, it evades all boundaries. He declares that their hemispheres are better than those of the earth, for their permanence is not affected by “sharp north” and “declining west”. Their world of love is so outer worldly that its hemispheres refuse to decay. They love equally and passionately.
John Donne, in “The Good-Morrow” catalogues the development of his love. In the first stanza, he reminisces about life before each other, of naive and simple love. The second stanza details the discovery of this deep love, and in the third, a proclamation of trust and a culmination of the story. Throughout the poem, Donne emphasizes the differences between physical and spiritual love, in that physical love is purely sensual and erotic contrary to the spiritual love, one engraved deep within the soul. Donne’s use of selective diction in such words as “wean”, “world”, and “hemisphere” spotlights the underlying message displayed throughout the poem.
