the good- morrow Flashcards
What is the form of ‘The Good Morrow’?
Aubade - waking up at dawn, new day/new life. Creates a sense of joy and growth.
What is the Meter used in ‘The Good Morrow’? What does it suggest?
iambic pentameter EXCEPT for each stanza’s final line which is in Alexandrine (12 syllables) This gives an emphatically conclusive sense of a great, loud declaration.
What is the Rhyme Scheme use in ‘The Good Morrow’? What does it suggest?
ababccc
Suggests the two lovers go together naturally as well as harmony, concord, agreement, perfection, couplining, union and rightness.
What is there a semantic field of in the first stanza of ‘The Good Morrow’? Why has it been used?
Semantic Field of childhood (“weaned, snorted, childishly’)
Suggests now they have met they have matured
What can you say about the line “Where can we find two better hemispheres?” in ‘The Good Morrow’?
It is a hyperbolic question used to create the sense of the pleasing arrogance of new love.
What is there an extended metaphor of in ‘The Good Morrow’ and why?
Extended metaphor of geography (“sea-discoverers to new worlds”)
This presents these two bodies as worlds that don’t need anything else and also refers to sexual discovery. Context = written in the age of discovery (dawn of the New World)
What is the significance of the repitition of the verb ‘let’ in ‘The Good Morrow’?
Reinforces their proclamtion of love and their unification.
Why is Enjambment used in ‘The Good Morrow’?
The use of enjambment in both the first and third stanza puts an emphasis on “thou and I” as well as “did” and “love”. This suggests that their love will not end and possibly refers to their love inevitabley and endlessly leading to sex.
Explain the Renaissance Neoplatonic view of relationships and how it links to ‘The Good Morrow’
In order to achieve a spiritual union, lovers must also celebrate a physical union. Thus, the physical is a pathway to the spiritual.
The final two lines in the poem draw these ideas together - a claim of immortal love but sexual connotations in ‘slacken’ and ‘die’.
What is the personal context that could be found in ‘The Good Morrow’?
It acts as a possible reflection of his earlier reputation as a ‘great visitor of ladies’ (Schama descibes him as a ‘libertine’ in his youth) now transformed by a relationship of mutual, mature love.
What is Fiona Shaw’s interpretation of ‘The Good Morrow’?
This is a declaration of wonder at a sincere, mutual love, but, there seems to be a ‘shiver of vulnerability’ in his use of the paradoxical image of a sphere ‘without sharp North, whichout declining West’
What is the significance of the last word of ‘The Good Morrow’?
‘die’ For all the confidence they have achieved a lasting love, there seems to be an understanding that it may not last beyond death.
What is the significance of the caesura after ‘loved’ in the first stanza in ‘The Good Morrow’?
Causes the speaker to stop as he reflects on his past before he met her.
What is the significance of the line “one little room an everywhere” in ‘The Good Morrow’?
The microcosm reinforces the image of their love as central to the whole world and, brilliantly, is placed centrally in the whole poem’
How does Donne embody Neoplatonic ideas in the midst of untraditional, anti-romantic coloquial language in ‘The Good Morrow?
He suggests that the physical is a mere hint or shadow of the true reality residing in the spiritual (‘seven sleepers’ christian refrence)
What is Phillip Mallet’s critical perspective on ‘The Good Morrow’?
‘If therefore, the lovers really do make up one world, or if at least their two loves are so exactly matched that there can be no decay, then there can be no death of love for them.’
What is Thomas N Corns critical perspective on ‘The Good Morrow’ and ‘The Sun Rising’?
‘In ‘the good morrow’ and ‘the sun rising’ where the experience of mutual love gives the poet a new perspective from which the rest of the world looks insignificant. The two lovers create a new whole and one is incomplete without the other’
