The Sun Rising
Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide5
Late schoolboys, and sour ‘prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.10

Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Whyshouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
If her eyes have not blinded thine,15
Look, and tomorrow late, tell me
Whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear: "All here in one bed lay."20

She’s all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compar'd to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happyas we,25
In that the world's contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.30

John Donne (1572-1631)

  1. On the copy of the poem, label all figurative language.
  1. Answer the following questions.
  1. As precisely as possible, identify the time of day and the locale. What three “persons” does the poem involve?
  1. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the sun in stanzas 1 and 2? How and why does it change in stanza 3?
  1. Where does the speaker understate and overstate the actual qualities of the sun? Point out specific examples.
  1. Identify the overstatements in lines 9-10, 13, 15, 16-20, 21-24, 29-30. What do these overstatements achieve?
  1. Line 17 introduces a geographical image referring to the East and West Indies, sources respectively of spices and gold. What relationship between the lovers and the rest of the world is expressed in lines 15-22?
  1. Who is actually the intended listener for this extended apostrophe? What is the speaker’s purpose?
  1. Answer the 4 BIG questions.
  1. Who is the speaker?
  1. What is the occasion/situation/circumstance/setting?
  1. What is the central purpose of the poem?
  1. By what means is the purpose achieved? (On the back of this page, list the 3-4 main poetic devices and describe briefly how they are used.)