The Good Morrow

Question 1

What type of poem is “The Good Morrow”?

Answer 1

“The Good Morrow” is an aubade—a morning love poem

Question 2

How does Donne talk about love in “The Good Morrow”?

Answer 2

the speaker describes love as a profound experience that’s almost like a religious epiphany. The poem claims that erotic love can produce the same effects that religion can.

Question 3

Start of stanza 2 “Good Morrow to our waking souls”- what is an idea around this?

Answer 3

The lovers had been asleep and are just now glimpsing the light of day for the first time.

Question 4

what does the poem claim about love in “The Good Morrow”?

Answer 4

it claims that erotic love can produce the same effects that religion can.

Question 5

what are the two main themes in “The Good Morrow”

Answer 5

1. Love as an awakening
2. Exploration and Adventures

Question 6

(Themes)
In “The Good Morrow” love is seen as so powerful that the speaker describes it as an…

Answer 6

Awakening of the soul: it is almost like a religious experience.

Question 7

(Themes)
What religious figures does Donne compare his lover and himself too in “The Good Morrow” and why?

Answer 7

He compares them to nuns or monks because like nuns or monks they have dedicated themselves to love above adventures and success.

Question 8

(Themes)
“The Good Morrow” separates the lives of the lovers into two parts. the first being before they found each other and the second after. How did Donne describe before?

Answer 8

Described with disdain: the pleasures they enjoyed were childish, they were like babies. Like children they had a limited understanding of life and what it had to offer.

Question 9

(Themes)
“The Good Morrow” separates the lives of the lovers into two parts. the first being before they found each other and the second after. How did Donne describe after?

Answer 9

as though their eyes have been opened. the speaker realises that any “beauty” experienced before this love was really nothing more than a “dream”- a pale imitation of the joy and pleasure the speaker feels now.

Question 10

(Themes)
Having tasted the intense pleasures of love what do the lovers give up on (in “The Good Morrow”)?
Use a quote. And explain how this can be linked back to monks and nuns.

Answer 10

They give up on adventure and exploration: they treat their “one little room” as “an everywhere”. Again, this can be linked back to monks and nuns as they are people who separate themselves from the world, to dedicate themselves to their religion.

Question 11

(Themes)
What does the speaker in “The Good Morrow” announce on the final line? and what is it referring to?

Answer 11

“none can die”- the lovers devotion wins them immortality.

Question 12

(Themes)
What does the second and third stanza focus on in “The Good Morrow” (focusing on the theme of exploration and adventure)

Answer 12

“Sea- discoveries”
“New worlds”
“Maps”
“Hemispheres”

Question 13

(Themes)In “The Good Morrow” what does the poem compare the desire to chart new lands with?

Answer 13

The pleasures of love itself . The speaker finds love so pleasurable that they propose to withdraw from the world in order to dedicate themselves entirely to love.

Question 14

(Themes)
In the second stanza of the poem “The Good Morrow” the speaker proposes that…

Answer 14

The lovers renounce their worldly ambitions. The speaker says that instead of crossing the oceans or mapping foreign countries, they should stay in bed and gaze into each others eyes.

Question 15

(Themes)
In “The Good Morrow” the speaker states in stanza two that instead of exploring the world they should stay in bed and gaze into each others eyes. Can you expand on the significance of the eyes?

Answer 15

The speaker argues in stanza three that they will not find better “hemispheres” out in the world than each others eyes.

Question 16

(Themes)
When looking at the theme of Adventures and exploration what could be an argument to use in an essay regarding love and adventure?

Answer 16

the poem argues that true love can be a way of experiencing the entirety of life. Essentially there is no need to seek adventure on the high seas, because everything is already contained within the experience of love itself.

Question 17

(Lines 1-4)
What do the first four lines establish regrading the poems form?

Answer 17

establishes the poems broad concerns and hint at its unusual form.

Question 18

(Lines 1-4)
The speaker begins by asking a series of questions directed at their lovers, why?

Answer 18

the speaker wants to know what the two lovers did before they fell in love with each other.

Question 19

(Lines 1-4)
The speaker begins by asking a series of questions directed at their lovers, these questions are rhetorical what could this suggest?

Answer 19

Although the speaker wants to know what the two lovers did before they fell in love, he asks rhetorical questions suggesting that the speaker isn’t actually interested in the answers.

Question 20

(Lines 1-4)
In “The Good Morrow’ Donne refers to an important christian and islamic tradition : The myth of the seven sleepers. What is the myth of the seven sleepers?

Answer 20

A group of people who hid in a cave for 300 years to escape religious prosecution.

Question 21

(Lines 1-4)
In “The Good Morrow” Donne compares his lover and himself to the seven sleepers. How does he think they compare?

Answer 21

Donne thinks that now him and his lover have woken up, they are rewarded for their piety with eternal life.

Question 22

(Lines 1-4)
In “The Good Morrow” what core argument does the allusion of Donne’s comparison to the ‘Seven Sleepers’ create?

Answer 22

That erotic love can have effects that are just as profound as the effects of religious practise.

Question 23

(Lines 1-4)
What is the rhyming pattern on lines 1 to 4 in “The Good Morrow”

Answer 23

Rhymed in a criss cross pattern
ABAB

Question 24

(Lines 1-4)
These lines are I….. P………

Answer 24

Iambic Pentameter

Question 25

(Lines 1-4)
The speaker uses a ….. rhyme in lines 1 and 3.
What words are involved in the rhyme?

Answer 25

Slant rhyme
“I” and “Childishly”

Question 26

(Lines 1-4)
as the poem progresses there is formal sloppiness such as…

Answer 26

Loose meter and imperfect rhymes

Question 27

(Lines 1-4)
What impression does the loose meter and imperfect rhymes give?

Answer 27

gives the impression that the speakers attention is elsewhere.

Question 28

(Lines 1-4)
What literal techniques do the first two lines of the poem contain? and what does it highlight to us as a reader about the speakers emotions?

Answer 28

Alliteration, assonance and consonance.
This highlights the speakers enthusiasm and joy. These emotions come through in the poems play of sound.

Question 29

(Lines 1-4)
the play of sounds in these lines seem out of control. How does the speaker take back their control?

Answer 29

Through end- stopped lines. though the first line is enjambement, the next 3 are end-stop.