Good Morrow: A Love Poem by John Donne

 

Good Marrow is a passionate love poem by John Donne. The speaker, most probably the poet himself, starts with a number of rhetorical questions. These questions are directed at his mistress, beloved or wife, whatever you call her. Of course, the speaker does not want his partner to answer these questions, as the answers to these questions are already clear to the narrator.

He starts with an oath and asks his beloved with wonder and surprise what they did before they fell in love and enjoyed each other. Perhaps, they were just infants before that experience of love making, and perhaps, they enjoyed their simple life more because of their unawareness of that side of life or they did something worthless prior to that relationship of theirs.

The speaker goes on with his argument and compares their non-indulgence in love and love making to the non-indulgence in the worldly affairs of the seven sleepers who left the city and went into a cave where they slept for an infinitely long period of time.

After comparing their plight to seven sleepers, the narrator comes back in the present and tells his mistress that all pleasures he enjoyed in the past are nothing compared to present pleasure of being with her. He declares that any past relationship which he developed was just an endeavour to reach the present relationship. In other words, all the women he enjoyed in the past looked like her: that was exactly the reason he fell in love with them.

And now when he is with her, the narrator continues, he has come know all the good sides of their relationship—he welcomes their maturity and adulthood. Earlier they were afraid of each other and now when their have reached their maturity, they do not fear anything no longer.

The speaker announces to his beloved that love is very powerful and overwhelming feeling and it has power to control all other feelings. Lovers become careless to all material things and for them their small room becomes everywhere. Lovers do not care what is happening in the world—they let others whatever they are doing, they enjoy their love making in their room though it is very small room—they least care for adventure and change in the outside world.

In the final stanza of the poem, the speaker stresses the need of being in love fully and passionately. According to him, if lovers are true to each other, they make a perfect world and perfect existence. This perfect world is more desirable than the real world which is subject to different changes because of its geography. As lovers go on loving with the same intensity throughout their life, they have chances to over live their physical essence and continue loving beyond life—the real world changes—one half of it is intense cold and the other half of it is very hot—however, it is not so in the case of lovers—as they love with equal intensity and passion, they are more reliable and they present a perfect union of soul and body.

Now here is the actual poem. First read it and see how it has the following qualities for Donne was criticised by many from his own times and later on, and also for which he is lauded and appreciated today.

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?

But sucked 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 mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

 

·         It is argumentative.

·         It is colloquial.

·         It has heterogeneous ideas which seemed to be yoked together by force.

·         It is erotic.

·         It is somewhat difficult to understand because of it describes something complex about human relationship.

·         It is scholastic.

·         It takes readers by surprise and stuns us.

·         It has a great deal of exaggeration in its main body.

·         It uses science and logic to put forward its argument.

·         It has mockery and wit in it: it is ludicrous.