The Sun Rising

“The Sun Rising” is a lyric love poem by John Donne, who was the leading figure in a group of English 17th century poets known as the metaphysical poets. Donne, who later became an Anglican clergyman, wrote in the late Elizabethan and the Jacobean Age. “The Sun Rising” was first published in 1633, two years after Donne’s death, in Poems, by J. D. with Elegies on the Author’s Death. This was the first collected edition of Donne’s verse. The date the poem was written is unknown, as only seven of Donne’s poems were published during his lifetime. Scholars believe Donne wrote most of his many love poems when he was in his 20s, but this one must be slightly later, since it refers to King James I who ascended the throne in 1603, by which time Donne was in his early 30s. “The Sun Rising” is a playful yet serious poem in which the speaker directly addresses the sun in colloquial terms and employs witty conceits (elaborate metaphors) and hyperbole (exaggeration) to convey the depth and all-encompassing nature of the love he shares with his lady.

Poet Biography