"The Good Morrow" a poem by John Donne.
“The Good Morrow” by John Donne
The poem “The Good Morrow”, by John Donne is one of the poems, from our readings, that caught my interest. I was perplexed with the reference to the “Seven sleepers' den” (Line 4) imagery comparing the couple lying in bed. According to a popular legend, seven young Christians of Ephesus, in the second century, took refuge from Roman persecution in a cave, and miraculously slept for some two hundred years when the entrance of their cave was walled up by their pursuers . In the first stanza, the narrators devoted expression of love towards the female focus is full of charm and wit. Incidentally in line 6, “If ever any beauty I did see, / Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee” illustrated the sincerity to which the speaker felt, because he spoke as if he knew he loved her even before he met her. This is very admirable to read since the narrators love is so devoted and deep it makes all other love seem insignificant by comparison. Donne writes with images of sleep, and the way in which one’s eyes can be closed to what the world has to offer. This suggests that their absence of sight in the darkness, denies them from the light which holds the knowledge about the ways of love, greater than what the world has to offer. I criticize Donne’s imagery by being crude yet witty, when imagery of the proverbial breast of a mother is used to describe the adolescence of love, in lines 2-3 “were we not weaned till then? / But sucked on country pleasures, childishly”. It’s a great comparison by indirectly correlating a representation of the ideologies regarding, youth, location, and inexperience; it’s a milestone to their beginning love.