The Good Morrow- Questions and Answers
Question 1: Examine the theme of love in “The Good Morrow” by John Donne.
“The Good Morrow” written by John Donne is a love poem and the type of love discussed is celestial, true and agape type of love that is based on trust; they wish good for one another. It is a celestial love that germinates from the lovers and they now become one.
In the first stanza, the speaker, out of love, asks his lover what they were doing before they met. This question is asked to solidify their relationship.
The situation then is likened to the case of seven sleepers, who slept for years and woke to the spread of Christianity.
This is an allusion that implies that the period was not eventful at all; they are just woken from their slumber to a new life.
The lovers believe that their love is real and sees the world through their love.
Let us possess one world (in some versions this is our world) …the speaker affirms that they have their individual worlds but their love world they possess, they totally own a whole new world which they are free to explore.
The lovers see their reflections on one another. As they gaze into each other’s eyes, they see their reflections. The lovers have now become one. The speaker says that their loves are balanced and immortal; it can never die.
Question 2: Identify the poetic devices in “The Good Morrow.”
Rhetorical Question: This is an expression in the form of a question and requires no answer. This is used in some lines in stanza one.
“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 Sleeper’s
den?”
Alliteration: This is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more words in a line of a poem. We have this in lines 1, 3, 7, 16, 18, 24, 26, 27, 28, 34, 36.
Personification: This is giving the attributes of the animate object to the inanimate. This is in line 16 & 17,
“Which watch not one another out of
fear;”
Repetition: This is when a word or an expression is repeated severally in a poem for emphasis and to call the attention of the readers. “Let” is repeated in lines 22, 24 and 26 of the poem.
Antithesis: This is when two contradictory statements or expressions are placed side by side. This is in line 38,
“If our two loves be one, or, thou and I”
Assonance: This is when a vowel sound is repeated in a line of poem as we have in the following:
“sucked on country…
Seven Sleepers’ den…
all love of other…
tine in mine…
true plain hearts do…”
Caesura: This is when a pause has to be applied in a poem due to the use of punctuation mark by the poet:
“Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
Question 3: What are the themes of John Donne’s “The Good Morrow”?
These are the themes of the poem:
Innocence: The poet in the first stanza wonders what the state of their minds was and what they were doing when they were children. He concludes that as children, they were innocently enjoying themselves.
“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?”
Love: The major theme of this poem is the theme of love. A spiritual, celestial, unbiased love that is devoid of fear and full of trust. The love germinates from the lovers that the duo now becomes one. They see, feel and think the same way.
Immortality: The poet concludes that if their two loves are one and the love is balanced, that the love can never die.
“If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken,
none can die.”
Trust: The lovers have trust and believe in each other; they see themselves as one as they see their images in their eyes while gazing at each other.
Question 4: Give a vivid account of “The Good Morrow.”
“The Good Morrow” written by John Donne is a love poem and the type of love discussed is celestial, true and agape type of love that is based on trust and the wills good for the other.
The first stanza describes love as a real love that is far from lust. The love germinates in the two lovers. The poet wonders about the conditions of the two lovers before they met. What were they doing and how were they feeling?
He concludes that they were just enjoying their lives all about as children. Now the lovers have been liberated because there is no fear of trust in them as they have what they dreamt of.
They believe that they are just woken up from their slumber; they are in a new world.
The second and the third stanzas chronicle the true love that is devoid of fear. The two have become one compared to the “seven sleepers” mentioned in stanza one, who were forced out of fear to hide their beliefs and woke to realize the spread of Christianity.
The lovers are in one world, they see the same thing, and they have the same thought, possess the same heart.
No better world can be found elsewhere than in them and the love is immortal; it can never die because it is a balanced love. They believe that it is imbalance that results in death.
Question 5: Examine the relationship of the lovers in “The Good Morrow by John Donne.
The lovers are caught in a real love relationship devoid of lust and full of trust. The speaker in the first stanza is asking what they were doing before they met as lovers.
With the two of them together; they just found themselves in a new world; that they were not existing before their union. That’s why the poem is titled “The Good Morrow.”
They compare their condition with that of the “seven sleepers” who slept for years and woke up to a new world where Christianity has spread.
The lovers see the world through themselves. They have become one; think together, do everything together. The love is full of trust and balance hence, the love can never die.
And makes one little room an
Everywhere.
Let sea -discovers 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.
The love between them is solidified that nothing can break it; it is immortal.