The Good Morrow by John Donne

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not wean’d till then?
But suck’d on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
‘Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that non can slacken, none can die.

-John Donne

Everytime I reread John Donne’s poetry I think to myself, “Self, if this ancient poet resurrected and approached me, he could get it…skeleton rattling, coffin-breath permeating et al.” THAT is how amazing I think John Donne’s poetry is. It is so heavily nuanced; each line has neatly folded within each letter, poignant meaning and unquestionable depth. It’s really hard to read this man’s work without being moved.

I found a decent analysis of the poem at http://beamingnotes.com/2013/05/21/summary-of-the-good-morrow-by-john-donne/, I agree with most of the critic’s review and think its more accessible and sensible than a ton I came across.

The good morrow by John Donne is considered to be one of the best poems belonging to the metaphysical school of poetry. This poem is the poet’s words to his beloved after a night of love making. This summary will help you unravel the beautiful meaning behind the complex metaphysical conceit in this poem and once that barrier is done away with; this poem will come across as one of the most powerful love poetry of all times.

In the beginning of the Good morrow poem, the poet asks his beloved how they used to spend their lives before they had met each other. With his beloved in arms, the poet realizes how empty his life was before. He considers that phase of their lives to be as meaningless as the ones spent in slumber by the seven sleepers of Ephesus in the den when they were trying to escape the wrath of the tyrant Emperor Decius. Being without his beloved was as insignificant as those years which the seven sleepers had spent sleeping. It means that those years bore no importance in his life anymore. During those days when he was yet to discover true love, he would make up for that emptiness by indulging in other pleasures of life but now after understanding the meaning of love he realizes that those pleasures were very artificial. Now it seems to the poet as if he was a small child during those days who was being weaned on these materialistic pleasures of the world in the absence of true love which was like mother’s milk to that child. During those days all objects of beauty that he came across were nothing but his beloved’s reflection. To the poet his beloved was like a beautiful dream which was turned into reality. In the good morrow summary, it is worth mentioning that through false pleasures the poet might be indicating towards his various liaisons with other women which were just a reflection of the beauty which his true lover filled him with.

In the second stanza of “The good morrow poem summary” the poet sheds light upon the bliss which envelops the lovers. He says that their souls rise in the light of the new morning of love in their lives. Their hearts are devoid of any kind of jealousy, fear of commitment, misunderstanding or losing the one they love. Their presence in the each others life means so much to them that nothing catches their attention anymore. Donne proposes his loved one to turn their tiny room in which they make love into their only world. He says that he does not care about how much the sea discoverers expand the boundaries of the world with their discoveries. During those times when maritime discoveries were given utmost importance, the new inclusions to the map of the world meant nothing to the poet since his world only comprised of his beloved and him. Their respective worlds have now been fused into one. This drawing of an intellectual parallel from astronomy and geography strengthens the metaphysics of the poem.

Next the poet talks about the unique beauty of the love which he and his beloved share. Donne says that that sometimes he and his beloved stare into each others eyes so longingly that they can see their faces in the others eyes. This refection of faces in the eyes reveals the true hearts of the lovers. Their hearts are true and spotless in love. This means that their love for each other enables the lovers to get rid of all their bad traits and harsh feelings towards the world which helps them become better people. The poet further adds that unlike the world which is divided in hemispheres, their world of love knows no boundaries. It does not have a sharp cold northern hemisphere. Nor does it have a western hemisphere which has to bid farewell to the sun. By drawing this reference to Geography again, the poet tries to give us an insight into the unparalleled bliss of his world of love where it is always warm and sunny.

The Good Morrow summary will help the readers in understanding the link which Donne draws from medieval alchemy towards the end of the poem to explain the immortality of the love which he shares with his beloved. The poet says to his loved one that their love is indestructible since it is pure. It is the hardest to relax the bonds of pure substances. The mixing of two things causes impurity which threatens the longevity of substances. The lovers do not feel this threat since their love is not mixed with any selfish demands or intentions of any kind and is perfectly pure. With such a strong bond of love between them the poet is convinced that nothing can ever decrease or stop the stream of love which flows between his beloved and him.