Analyse
‘The Good Morrow’ as a Metaphysical love poem.
A group of
early 17th century poets broke away
with the tradition of the idealized Elizabethan love poetry and the term
‘metaphysical poetry’ is applied to their works. Metaphysics, as the term denotes,
is a study of abstract concepts; while ‘meta’ means beyond and ‘physics’ means
science of concrete things. Altogether, metaphysics means a subject that deals
with things which do not have concrete shapes. Metaphysical poetry mainly deals
with such concepts as love, faith, soul, death, and God. Common elements of
metaphysical poetry include the following: argumentative expression of
emotional contents, use of wit and metaphysical conceits, conversational tone,
colloquial language, striking blend of thought and feeling, amalgamation of
disparate images, and irregular rhythmic pattern. John Donne is one of those
poets and his The Good Morrow bears
the signature marks of metaphysical poetry.
Firstly, the
theme of the poem is love, in accordance with its general tradition. The
essential subject matter of The Good Morrow is
the vulnerability of human love in a world dominated by time and change. The
characters presented in the poem have not always loved each other; there may
come a time when they no longer do so. But the speaker recognizes that while
they cannot banish fear of losing the love, they can, nevertheless, rise free
of it. Throughout the whole poem the theme of love dominates.
Another
characteristic of metaphysical poetry is the use of conceit, i.e. a comparison
which is more obviously ingenious than either true or appropriate. The Good Morrow abounds in the use of
conceits. Donne compares between the unaware lovers and the breastfed babies;
between the unconscious lovers and the seven sleepers who slept for two hundred
years; between two lovers and two hemispheres. Now these unusual comparisons
are a signature mark of metaphysical poetry and The Good Morrow has this mark.......................................
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