The Good-Morrow by John Donne (1633)

Name: The Good-Morrow
Author: John Donne

Two lovers wake together and the speaker wonders what he and his beloved did before they loved each other, asking whether they were unweaned infants, or fed only on crude "country pleasures" like children, or lay snoring in the den of the Seven Sleepers. He concludes that it was so, and that any beauty he ever desired and possessed before was merely a dream foreshadowing her. He then bids good-morrow to their now-waking souls, which watch each other without fear because love has banished any wish to look at other sights. Love, he says, makes one small room into an entire world. He tells sea-discoverers to go off and find new worlds, and lets mapmakers show others worlds upon worlds; he and his beloved will possess one world each, and each of them is a world in the other. He sees his own face in her eye and hers in his, and observes that true, plain hearts rest in these faces. He asks where two better hemispheres could be found than these, hemispheres without a sharp north or a declining west. Whatever dies was not mixed in equal proportions; therefore, if their two loves are one, or if the two of them love so alike that neither love can slacken, neither of them can die.

By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 268 words

First lines

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I / Did, 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.

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The Good-Morrow is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: John Donne
Date: 1633 CE
Language: English
Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Renaissance Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
Length: 268 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Similar titles

Genres

Metaphysical Poetry — Employs elaborate conceits (lovers as hemispheres, a room as the entire world), uses philosophical argumentation about love's nature, and demonstrates intellectual wit and paradox central to metaphysical verse.
Love Poetry — Celebrates intimate connection between lovers and explores love's transformative power, presenting it as the supreme experience that transcends all other human concerns and connections.
Lyric Poetry — Expresses personal emotion and intimate contemplation with a meditative, direct tone; speaker addresses the beloved while exploring internal emotional states characteristic of lyric form.
Renaissance Poetry — Reflects 17th-century English Renaissance context with themes of beauty, human experience, and romantic love expressed through sophisticated literary technique and classical allusions.