The Sun Rising

The sun is a universal symbol used over the centuries to represent a range of qualities including order, power, majesty, royalty, the divine. It symbolizes life-giving force, heat, and energy. It is the central symbol in this poem and carries some of those meanings, but the speaker is also keen—in his characteristically mischievous manner—to devalue and undermine the sun and to place love as its superior since love partakes of eternity in a way that the sun, which marks the rhythms of time, does not (Stanza 1). The sun is thus “unruly” (Line 1); that is, it is disruptive to the lovers’ desire not to be disturbed, and also unruly in that it is unwilling or difficult to be ruled. The speaker thus has to set the sun right about its place vis-à-vis the lovers, which he does by elevating their status to immense proportions; they are themselves an entire world (Stanza 2). This allows him finally to acknowledge, in the final stanza, the vital, life-giving role the sun offers. He emphasizes the sun’s role of supplying warmth, both to the world and to the lovers (Line 28). In this context, warmth suggests sexual energy the lovers enjoy.