Analyse ‘The Good Morrow’ as a Metaphysical love
poem.
A group of early 17th century poets broke away with the tradition
of the idealized Elizabethan love poetry and the term ‘metaphysical poetry’ is
applied to their works. Metaphysics, as the term denotes, is a study of
abstract concepts; while ‘meta’ means beyond and ‘physics’ means science of
concrete things. Altogether, metaphysics means a subject that deals with things
which do not have concrete shapes. Metaphysical poetry mainly deals with such
concepts as love, faith, soul, death, and God. Common elements of metaphysical
poetry include the following: argumentative expression of emotional contents,
use of wit and metaphysical conceits, conversational tone, colloquial language,
striking blend of thought and feeling, amalgamation of disparate images, and
irregular rhythmic pattern. John Donne is one of those poets and his The Good Morrow bears the signature marks of
metaphysical poetry.
Firstly, the theme of the poem is love, in
accordance with its general tradition. The essential subject matter of The Good Morrow is the vulnerability of human love in
a world dominated by time and change. The characters presented in the poem have
not always loved each other; there may come a time when they no longer do so.
But the speaker recognizes that while they cannot banish fear of losing the
love, they can, nevertheless, rise free of it. Throughout the whole poem the
theme of love dominates.
Another characteristic of metaphysical poetry
is the use of conceit, i.e. a comparison which is more obviously ingenious than
either true or appropriate. The Good Morrow abounds
in the use of conceits. Donne compares between the unaware lovers and the
breastfed babies; between the unconscious lovers and the seven sleepers who
slept for two hundred years; between two lovers and two hemispheres. Now these
unusual comparisons are a signature mark of metaphysical poetry and The Good Morrow has this mark.
