This is another remarkable love poem by the genius of John Donne, a great metaphysical and speculative poet. The poet sleeps with his beloved in bed. This, in fact, is a great thing from a lover’s point of view. The joys and pleasures of union are incomparable and no lover would allow himself to be disturbed while he is with the beloved. But who can say this to the “busy old fool, wayward sun” who has been teasing the two lovers “through windows and curtains”. John Donne’s poem “The Sunne Rising” is a complaint to the sun that it should not wake up and disturb happy lovers with its warmth.
Donne complains to the sun to “reprimand children who are late for school” and to “inform the court hunters” of their negligent duties. But the sun should not disturb the lovers while they sleep in the happy union between them. Then the poet tells the sun that love is free from the limits of time that include days and nights or divided into hours and minutes; these are nothing more than “the rags of time” to Donne.
Then John Donne continues to threaten the sun because if the sun has powerful rays of light, the poet also has the power and the light of love. The poet “could overshadow and cloud them with a winke.” The poet tells the sun that he can outshine the sun but he will not because to do so he has to look at the sun, which would mean losing sight of his beloved for example. This the poet cannot afford; therefore, it would outshine the sun.
The poet challenges the sun to go in search of the world’s treasures because he has witnessed all the riches and beauties of the world around him. The poet asks the sun to return the next morning after having seen everything and then compare the richest of beauties with the poet’s beloved. The sun would find that all treasures, beauty and powers “all here in one bed lay” in the form of the poet’s beloved.
Well, apart from the fact that the poem is a conversation with the sun; it is a pure expression of one’s passions for the enjoyment of the beauty of a loved one. The poet has really reflected on the happy state of a lover who will ignore the whole world just to catch a glimpse of his beloved. It is a true love poem, albeit with the added probabilities of metaphysical techniques.
