The first stanza begins with a callous and cruel tone, and is completely fixed on complaining about the sun, enough so that Donne’s first 3 lines are of unforgiving masculine words using short lines and grumpy style “Busie old foole, unruly sun” We instantly see how distrustful he is towards the sun, and he continues to abuse the sun “Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?” and the following four lines giving examples of other things the sun could do as opposed to rising and interrupting the bliss the two entwined lovers are enjoying “Sawcy pedantique wretch … Call countrey ants to harvest offices” The words are strong, crisp, and masculine, which add to the effect of harsh critical tone, and if we look at the meanings we find incredible insensitivity by the writer. This superiority, however, is turned as we later see to support the ultimate contention that Donne has a love that time itself should not interfere with. The imagery used in the first stanza is colourful and gives us the idea that the sun interrupts all things, proving the writer’s point that the sun is an unwanted intruder. Towards the end of the stanza the writer is less concerned with criticising the sun and more with his love and how that bond is interfered with by time “Love, all alike, no season knowes, nor clyme\ Nor houres, dayes, moneths, which are the rags of time.” Our reading pace is slowed down to fully comprehend the writers apparent change of heart, and this is done by the strategic placement of the word “Love”, at the very start of the last line, directly followed by a comma, forcing us to pause and ponder it.
The second stanza begins as almost the continuation of the first, as he continues to praise his love, and although he still insults the sun “I could eclipse and cloud them with a winke”. The writer goes on the compare his love to spices of India, and mined treasures, such highly regarded objects in Donne’s time. The writer also daringly exclaims that all the kings of yesterday are there in the bed with him. This statement cannot be taken at face value, and if we look deeper, we see it is another praise to his lover, simply saying that all the majesty and richness of the world is in bed with him. Indeed, it seems that this bed is all that the writer needs in life, and in the last two lines of the stanza, as in the first, we can feel the tempo slowing more, with the tone being calm and concluding.
The third and final stanza is the concluding of the argument between the writer and the sun, and the writer continues to compare his love to many things, “She’is all States, and all Princes, I\ Nothing else is.” The writer uses very feminie and delicate words in this stanza, such as “mimique” and “alchimie”, and this emphasises the writer love for his partner, as such definitive and articulate praise can only come from the heart. Donne does not insult the sun anymore, he merely talks down to it, claiming that it is not as happy as the two lovers, and that the sun is becoming old and it is all it can do just to warm the world. This does not insult the sun as much as it simply degrades it and elevates the position of the lovers. The tempo of this stanza is a slow and contemplative one, and usuing long words, such as “alchimie” and “contracted”, or ones with open vowel sounds, such as “honour’s” and “ease”, achieve this. The stanza seems less divided into lines and more into long, flowing sentences.
Donne uses imagery to great effect in “The Sunne Rising” and the language enhances these images. It is apparent that the different types of language are attached to different emotions, with the extravagant and smooth language attached to love and the harsh critical language attached to the writer’s criticism of the sun. Throughout the poem, Donne uses changes in tone, diction and clever arguments to sway us from out initial impression that the writer is a nagging and callous person, to one that is deeply and emotionally involved with the love of his life.
