The Good Morrow

‘The Good Morrow’ is John Donne’s most celebrated love poem where he has shed light upon the strength, beauty and immortality of true love which can only be achieved when the body and soul are not divorced but in perfect harmony. The poem starts with the befuddlement of early morning consciousness which leads to spiritual awakening triggered by physical union.
Critical Analysis:
“The Good-Morrow” is an excellent piece of metaphysical poetry. John Donne has written it as a comparatively early age and the poem was published in a collection entitled as Songs and Sonnets. It is a poem about contentment in love.
It is a metaphysical poem. According the characteristics of metaphysical poem, the major themes of the poems are- love, death, and religious faith. The major theme of the Good Morrow is Love. It deals with spiritual love. It presents a saturated love, which has nothing to do with physical instincts. The theme of love has been developed argumentatively from surprise to confidence and then to immortality. Donne has used several conceits to develop the thought.
The conceits are: The comparison between the unaware lovers and the breast-feed babies. The comparison between the unconscious lovers and the seven sleepers who slept for two hundred years. The comparison between the lovers’ micro-world with the real world; and The comparison between the two hemispheres and the two lovers. The poem is a dramatic monologue in form though it differs from a formal dramatic monologue. Its abrupt beginning, single speaker and silent listener conform to the tradition to the dramatic monologue. But it does not have the psychological tension that a dramatic monologue of Robert Browning has. Moreover, its arguments are not found in a dramatic monologue.