Friday, January 23, 2009

The Good Morrow

I WONDER by my troth, what thou and IDid, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ?But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ?Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.And now good-morrow to our waking souls,Which watch not one another out of fear ;For love all love of other sights controls,And makes one little room an everywhere.Let sea-discoverers 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.My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;Where can we find two better hemispheresWithout sharp north, without declining west ?Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;If our two loves be one, or thou and ILove so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

In "The Good Morrow" John Donne uses diction to demonstrate the power of love and structure to show its progression. The poem is about the love he shares with his lover and its growth over time. It begins as something childish and lustful between two people and in the end unites them as if "two loves be one" and somethin that can not die.
In the beginning the use of words such as "pleasures", "desired", and "childish" suggest his ignorance and musconception of what love is. He also says "I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I did til we loved?" suggesting that while thid was going on they had yet to learn what love really was.
In the next paragraph he uses diction as well, to suggest a more advanced stage towards love that could almost be recognized as an awakening. The words "Thou and I" are now represented with "our". They "possess one world". In the last paragraph their love becomes eternal love. He says they are one and their love can not die, the diction he uses to show this words/phrases that describe the two people as one being. For example, "my face in thine eye, thine in mine appears".
Therefore overall both diction and structure are used to express the main idea of this poem, which is that his love has grown and matured and it has occured overtime. As the reader it is evident that each stanza represents a different, more mature stage of his love, and his diction is also used to describe the maturing love.

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