I would like to think of the poem as an artists canvas he has begun my painting the background and setting the tone for the unravelling aura that will be created, by the latter more detailed and descriptive verses; he then picks a finer brush and narrows the focal point to almost the figure of the sun which is now predominant in the canvas but as a body of a person set in the middle of his Hessian. Now the tone of the painting has been set he then continues this tone by adding a face to his figure, which now towers in the image that the painting creates and it shows a foremost focal point that is influential yet refined and sought after.
There are rhyming couples through-out the poem which have a structure of A,B,B,A,C,D,C,D,F,F. this can be clearly seen in the first verse.
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows and curtains call on us?
Must to thy lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide,
Late school boys, and sour ‘prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call on country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
I believe the king commissioned this poet John Donne to write this poem and this is why the king is mentioned in the first verse this would have undoubtedly brought a smile to the kings face and as few could read or write it makes it more likely that the king would have read this poem or at least heard it, the king of the time was James I. In the 3rd verse it state that the sun is all powerful in comparison to princes and it also mentions that “all honours mimic, all wealth alchemy” I believe this means that all honour is nothing and means nothing next to the sun; and all wealth’s alchemy illustrates in our minds say that all wealth may as well be cheap magic when judged against the sun.
Throughout this poem I feel that it creates a warmth of almost inhaling the sun and just taking its power and rays in this is very strong imagery to me, “be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me.” I feel this is begging the sun to stay but its saying if you must go you must, also at the time this was written it was widely believed that the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth was the centre of the universe however today we no that it is the sun that is at the centre, and the earth revolves around the sun. So the poet it was asking the sun why do you get us up and wake us up in the mornings? and personifying the sun. “ through windows and curtains call on us?”
I deem that is the poet lightening the tone and feel with questions to the sun, this makes the poem cheeky and pert, which speeds up the feel of the poem and may evoke the readers emotions more by being faster paced, although the questions in the poem bring a pause after the question which is on the 3rd and 2nd line of verses 1 & 2 respectfully, the pace is quickened but the rhyming couplets.
When the time the poem could have been written there was very little useof scientific words such as “eclipse [and] alchemy” this would have made the poem some what controversial among its readers and would have made the reader read into the poem more and think about the ambiguous meanings of the poem in more depth and makings stronger feelings about the poem.
There are examples of alteration and assonance curtains call and some of the assonance is “knows, nor clime” this speeds the pace of the poem up and would make a stronger image.
The last two lines in the poem are the most effective in giving a atmosphere that the sun is all powerful, this then indents in your mind and makes you think about the poem more and perhaps read it again, to understand it more wholly. “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; this bed thy centre is, these wall my sphere.” Here the poet is saying that the sun is so powerful that it can reach his world these wall his sphere these walls his world and the bed is his centre this bed his middle like the planets core o the planets heart and he is saying that the sun touches his heart.
I propose that the fundamental focus and point of the poem is to make the reader think about how mighty the sun is and what it does to us and that we cant get away from it and its always there.
