Love and eroticism in 'The Good Morrow' Anonymous 12th Grade

The Good Morrow, by John Donne, is a candid depiction of a lover contemplating their spiritual and sensual awakening after sexually uniting with their beloved. The love described within the poem is one of endless proportions; it is able to transcend both earthly and heavenly boarders. Like many other metaphysical poets Donne employs the typical metaphysical trope by evoking strong tensions between the body and the soul with allusions to grounded images, such as a mother feeding her baby, and allusions to heavenly, biblical imagery, such as the “Seven Sleepers”. This emphasizes the importance of spiritual enlightenment through the medium of passionate, erotic expression to liberate oneself from earthly rules that limit the everlasting by the inescapable force of death. Furthermore, their spiritual union is everlasting as long as the love is sustained which is highlighted by the circular form of both the first and final lines rhyming (“I” and “die”). This idea of an eternal love is also highlighted through the most prominent conceit which compares love to spheres (as in the globe) which are inherently linked to the infinite. Despite being based in the realism of a post-coital bedroom, the heightened language places emphasis upon...