THE GOOD-MORROW. by John Donne
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.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west ?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
In the poem The Good Morrow, by John Donne, Donne uses literary techniques like diction and hyperboles to create the romantic tone for this love poem. Donne uses hyperboles like, "If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desir’d, and got, t’was but a dreame of thee." This line refers to the woman he is writing this love poem to and Donne exaggerates his love by saying how this woman is so great that all the other women he's ever been with have just become dreams of her. Another hyperbole is seen in, "Whatever dies was not mixed equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die" Here, Donne suggests how love cannot die unless they're not meant for eachother and he's reinforcing the fact that with this woman, this isn't true and that their love could never die. With the use of hyperboles, Donne helps create a much romantic and appealing tone to the reader because it provides his loving thoughts and emotions about the woman he loves. Diction also helps create the tone because when he speaks about the woman he loves, he uses a much more profound and sophisticated word choice to create the tone and even mood of the poem. "Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then, But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?" Donne's diction creates a more sophisticated tone and also creates a more profound meaning to his poems, in the previous line Donne suggests that his love might have been childish before he met her, his true love. Diction is also seen with his use of punctuation and how he is able to create double meanings with the use of rhetorical questions in the first stanza, "Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?"
Donne's tone is created with the help of diction and hyperboles. These literary devices help create a more romantic and meaningful feel of the poem that expresses his deep desire for the one he loves in a articulately passionate way.
*I realized by the end of this poem that Donne sorta creates a timeline, "Good Morrow" meaning good morning is stated in the beginning of the poem and what he speaks of last is death...I don't know, that could mean something.
