The Sun Rising

By: John Donne

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
        Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
        Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
        Late school-boys and sour prentices,
    Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
    Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

        Thy beams so reverend, and strong
        Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
        If her eyes have not blinded thine,
        Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
    Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
    Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."

        She's all states, and all princes I ;
        Nothing else is ;
Princes do but play us ; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
        Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
        In that the world's contracted thus;
    Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
    To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.

Introduction: 

Ø The Sun Rising

Ø Was written by John Donne

Ø An example of Lyric poetry about two lovers

Ø The poem has 3 stanza’s – each of which have 10 lines each

Ø The poem describes a love relationship between a man and women – this is a dramatic  poem where the speaker and his lover are in bed together – the reader can sense this as it says "all here in one bed lay" 

Anthropomorphism:  

Ø “Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?” 

Ø The speaker personifies the sun and is speaking to it as if it is a person throughout the whole poem

Ø Off the bat, the speaker is criticizing the sun, calling it a fool as the sunlight shone through the windows in the morning, wakening them. 

Ø The sun is like the antagonist

Ø He then instructs for the sun to go away

Ø As he believes that his life together with her is complete only during the night

Ø So the sun is being a nuisance and ignorant for disturbing their love

Language: 

Ø The language through John Donne’s poem is very serene and affectionate

Ø The descriptions are simple yet direct

Ø Dramatic and unexpected

Ø The message is easily conveyed

Ø The quote “I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, but that I would not lose her sight so long. If her eyes have not blinded thine” implies the concept of metaphysical love

Ø  This means that he was in more love with the fact that he had someone to care for, look after, deal with and so forth, like the sate of being in love rather than the lady herself and her characteristics/ qualities

Imagery: 

Ø “Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time” – so, this phrase represents time passing and proves that there is no limitation to love. From this, the reader may imagine how great their bond was as “Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,” which was another example of imagery written by John Donne.

Ø The speaker is comparing his happiness while in bed to how the sun would feel, if he were an actual person

Mood:  

Ø The mood of the poem ‘Sun Rising’ does alter slightly from the beginning of the text until the end

Ø In the beginning, the speaker seemed annoyed, demanding  and hesitant towards the sun as she disturbed his progression of love

Ø The line “Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide” refers to when the speaker forcefully initiated for the sun to go hide, to go away and leave them alone.  Here, John Donne is scolding or chastising the sun

Ø However, towards the very end of the poem, the mood is slightly altered as quoted “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere”

Ø From this phrase, one can tell that the speaker is taking sympathizing towards the sun, saying like “oh no, it’s okay, I’m sorry, come shine your light.” In other words, he feels bad that he has scolded the sun too much

Rhetoric/ Oxymoron:

Ø Two main literary devices used are rhetorical questions and oxymoron’s

Ø A rhetorical question for example, “Why shouldst thou think?” is used rhetorically as the speaker is asking a personified sun if allowing sun rays through a window is the thoughtful or right thing to do, he is questioning whether the disturbance of love is correct. 

Ø So the oxymoron is : “Saucy pedantic wretch”

Ø An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two opposite words or ideas are used to convey the same message, as if in agreement

o   ‘Saucy’ suggests lively and cheeky

o   Whereas ‘pedantic’ suggests precise and rather boring.

Ø This oxymoron was used when the speaker scolded the sun

Ø Using an oxymoron gives emphasis on the dramatic and exaggerated language used throughout the entire poem

Rhyme Scheme: 

Ø Lastly, is the rhyme scheme, which is ABBACDCDEE

Ø This means that both of the two lines ‘A’ rhyme, as do ‘B, C, D and E’

Ø The rhyme scheme through the poem isn’t the prominent device that is recognized

Conclusion:

Ø ‘Sun Rising’  is an example of lyric poetry

Ø  Written by John Donne

Ø Used anthropomorphism, imagery, rhetorical devices, oxymoron’s and so forth to convey the main idea in the poem

Ø Which was about the annoyance of the sun while lovers are in bed

Glossary 

Imagery : Figurative 
Metaphor - the transference of a quality from one thing to another  
Simile - comparing two objects using 'like' or 'as'  

Personification

Symbolism

Analogy

Motif - re occurring symbolism
Extended Metaphor - long

Imagery : Sensory

Hear

Taste

Touch

Feel

Smell 

Rhetorical Devices

Direct Command

Listing

Juxtaposition

Contrast

Compare

Praise

Repetition

Antithetical - opposite to

Ambiguity - a word which has more than one meaning 

Irony - what you don't expect

Sarcasm - language used with a certain amount of hyperbole intended to hurt

Rhetoric - language of persuasion

Paradox - something seems impossible but it is possible

  

Tracey Emins and Metaphysical Poets

Tracey Emin’s

• Used mono prints: depict events in her life like in ‘Poor Love’
• Used water colors: Turner Prize
• Worked with neon lights
• Photography : Monument Valley
•  Most famous in 1999: The Bed: reflected her suicidal life and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (tent)

Metaphysical Poetry

• Abrupt opening

• Lyrical

• Inspired by a philosophy

• Very simple tone

• Implies the characteristics of complexity

• Dramatic tone

• Abundance of wit

• Fusion of intellect and emotion

• Colloquial (informal) argumentative tone

• Uses allusions

• Uses paradoxical images

• Unusual sense of metaphors and similes

• Uses conceits – comparison between a metaphysical event and a tangible object

• Takes simple events and expands them into abstract ideas

Themes and Characterizaton

Go through these key notes and consider the way in which Shakespeare pulls together the threads of the main themes and the personalities and flaws within his main characters. Can you find links between actions and reactions to the build up of chaos and confusion created by the playwright?
Refer to chapter 6 English A1 Course Companion :
Exposition
Dramatic Incitement
Complication
Crisis
Resolution

Hamlet’s Third Soliloquy Commentary

By: Autumn Reay

February 2, 2011^th

• Is in Act 3 Scene 1
• Hamlet is a very confused man – unsure of himself and is constantly over thinking
• He wavers between two extremes:

o   The first is committing suicide

o   The second is seeking revenge for his father’s death

§  He can either suffer and “take arms against a sea of troubles”- seek revenge for his father’s death

§  Or, “to die: to sleep; no more…..and by a sleep to say we end.”

o    Hamlet is quite indecisive about these extremes

• “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come” – Hamlet is thinking about how his death would be like
• Because Hamlet was so indecisive, he had an extreme stream of consciousness (showing his inner heart)

o   As it says “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;” Hamlet is insulting himself

o    Plus, “with this regard their currents turn awry” – this signifies that his troubles were mind over matter

• Indirect reference to the heavens: “fly to others that we know not of”

Hamlet’s Second Soliloquy Commentary

•  Is in Act 2, scene 2
•  Happens after Hamlet sees the player acting a speech towards "Hecuba"
•  This soliloquy is divided into 2 parts:

o   Comparison to the player

o   Creating a plan

Devices

•  Tone:

o   "What a rogue and peasant slave am I" (2)

Rogue useless vagrant, peasant slave person with little integrity

o   "What an ass am I" (35)

§  Hamlet is insulting himself

o   Emotions words: "Ha!" (27), "O, vengeance!" (34),

o   All Used to generate the tone: Anger, Hatred, undermining. It Illustrate Hamlet's anger, and the undermining of himself as he did not show emotions, rage towards Claudius for the murder

•  Comparison:

o   " Yet I, a dull and muddy – mettled rascal" (17-18)

o   Comes after the description of the player.

o   Used to show the ongoing evaluation of Hamlet

•  Listing:

o   "all his visage wanned,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting" (6-8)

§  Hamlet describes the performance of the player

o   "He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. (13-17)

§  Hamlet assumes what the player would have done if the player was in his situation.

o   All these lists are used for the bigger device of comparison. Used to enhance the idea that Hamlet berates himself for not acting out his plan to avenge his father's murder

o   "Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!" (33)

§  Hamlet shows his hatred towards Claudius

o   Used to show a raging tone that rises from Hamlet's soliloquy

•  Rhetorical Questions:

o   “What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her?" (10-11)

o   Hecuba – mythological queen – appears in the play

-          Hamlet does not understand how the player can show such great emotions to a person that he had no connection with

o   Used to highlight again Hamlet's criticism of his lack of emotions

o   "Am I a coward?
Who calls me “villain”? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?" (22-26)

o   A series of rhetorical questions.

o   Used to show anger that arouses in Hamlet (ties into town)

o   Audience can understand the emotions that come from the character of Hamlet

•  Simile:

o   "Like John-a-dreams" (19)

§  Hamlet compares himself to an absent-mind dreamer.

o   Used to show that Hamlet is undermining himself, saying he is just an ideologist, not an action man

o    "I'll have these players play something like the murder of my father" (46-47)

-          Hamlet devises a plan

o   Used to show Hamlet's feelings towards the murder, (maybe: murder was well planned and executed like a play), also to show the change in the personality from an ideologist to an action man

•  Caesuras:

o   "a scullion! Fie upon't! foh!

About, my Brain! (39-40)

o   Used to illustrate rage and anger that come from Hamlet

o   "Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick:  If he do blench,
I know my course. (48-50)

o   Used to give a sense of action. Show Hamlet's hastiness, may illustrate his upcoming madness

•  Rhyme + Iambic pentameter:

o   Soliloquy ends with:

o   "More relative than this. The play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

-          Hamlet's final plan

o   Used to show a final resolution to his growing dilemma and to the whole soliloquy. Emphasizes Hamlet's decision.

Hamlet’s First Soliloquy Commentary

By: Autumn Reay

January 12^th, 2010

The metaphor and image “Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed,” is the synecdoche in Hamlet’s first soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2.  Hamlet expresses his disappointment and disgust towards his mother’s remarriage of his uncle Claudius.  Hamlet mentally breaks down when struggling to accept the remarriage.  Literary devices, techniques and references help illustrate Hamlet’s emotions through his passionate soliloquy and connect to the synecdoche.

The ambiguous phrase of an “unweeded garden” helped Hamlet describe his perceptions of contemporary Denmark and how he feels jinxed that evil has shadowed goodness.  The image illustrates how dreary everything felt to Hamlet.  It also hints at Hamlet’s hatred towards Claudius at his mother’s remarriage.  The ‘garden’ or Denmark became “rank and gross in nature”.  Claudius taking the throne brought evil to power.  This began Hamlet’s angry mental state.           

His anger and despair gradually ruptured as Hamlet wept the words; “O God, a beast, that wants discourse of reason, would have mourned longer.” Hamlet’s image of his parent’s great relationship was an ache to tolerate.  The love that kept his parent’s bond was magnificent. “Must I remember?” shows Hamlet’s hardship in coping with the remarriage as he quotes “within a month,” “it should come to this (remarriage)!” The time span between his father’s death and his mother’s second marriage was at “wicked speed,” which made Hamlet question the true reason behind his mother’s marriage with Uncle Claudius.  His mother did not mourn over her husband’s death.  To him, her previous marriage seemed perfect as “she would hang on him.”  However, his mother acted otherwise. 

Through the soliloquy numerous literary devices are used to express Hamlet’s disgust towards his mother’s re-marriage.  The Caesuras throughout the whole soliloquy emphasize Hamlets irritating range of emotions. The ongoing iambic pentameters do too. For example, “By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-- Let me not think on't.”  Hamlet is continuously expressing his sorrow and endless hate towards Claudius.  He does so with no control; thus, using iambic pentameters.  Shakespeare uses exclamation marks to end Hamlet’s vigorous phrases, plus, the repetition of the praise “O God!”  Both of these devices demonstrate Hamlet’s strong emotions.  The audience/reader may also notice Hamlet’s unhappiness towards the remarriage through an alteration in the text.  Hamlet begins to refer to his mother as his “lovely mother” then slowly modifies to “she.”  This demonstrates that Hamlet began to accuse his mother for marrying Uncle Claudius.   

Hamlet was very stressed and angry.  The imagery through his soliloquy was sinister.  Vocabulary words such as “stale, dead, rank, gross” and “unrighteous” were all used to emphasize his confused, furious and shady mood.  One powerful line quotes “with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” clearly paints a vivid picture that because of the skill or “dexterity” of the uncle, Claudius was able to exploit the “incestuous sheets;” which refers to the bed which belonged to his mother and birth father.      

‘Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed’ is a “figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole,” and/or is the synecdoche. (Dictionary definition) In this case, a part or phrase is used to explain/connect the whole text.  This is because, not only does the phrase refer to Denmark and the governing position but as I stated earlier, helps connect Hamlets painful feelings.  Due to his anger towards the new King Claudius, Hamlet ties in his distraught feelings towards his father’s death, as he mourns “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,” over the demise of his father, “a poor body.”  The main idea of Hamlets uncle becoming King frustrated him.  In comparison to his uncle taking the throne, Hamlet recalled a relatively small scene: his father’s death.  This led Hamlet to consider death as he quotes “his canon ‘gainst self slaughter! O God, God.”  He only considered this because the main idea sparked his emotions.        

However, God is “Everlasting,” which juxtaposes to Hamlet’s death.  God’s body is eternal which contrasts to “thaw, resolving itself into a dew”, which Hamlet desired to become.  Death was “weary, stale, flat and unprofitable; seem to me all the uses of this world!”  The idea of death was logically ineffective to Hamlet.     

Shakespeare then uses a simile to compare himself and his uncle, to his father.  “My father’s brother, but no more like my father, than I to Hercules,” refers to Greek mythology. Hamlet is admiring the goodness of his father as “so excellent a king” while criticizing himself and his uncle.  Referring to past mythology has given allusions to support Hamlet’s thoughts and ideas.  “Hyperion to a satyr” criticizes his uncle again as if simplified, means a ‘hero to a Greek creature similar to a Minotaur.’       

Juxtapositions, comparisons, metaphors and similes were strong devices which allowed Hamlet’s sorrowful emotions to be revealed.  His tone was also expressed through his first soliloquy. The tone was dreary and blunt. As he talks to himself and thinks aloud, he justifies his personal feelings which are straight forward and regard serious topics.  The soliloquy in the play ‘Hamlet,’ allows the audience to grasp an insight on Hamlet’s thoughts.

Hamlet’s first soliloquy did indeed allow the audience to be acquainted with Hamlet’s feelings, concerns and personality. Hamlet is a trickster with mad behavior. It was also about the context and background of the setting.  His soliloquy proves that Hamlet was mad which creates a sense of sympathy from the beginning.  The metaphor and image “Tis an unweeded garden that grows to a seed” is the synecdoche in his first soliloquy as it links Shakespeare’s ideas and thoughts.  Hamlet had trouble coping mainly with his mother’s re-marriage to his Uncle Claudius but minutely over the death of his father. He quotes, “But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue”…“it is not, nor it cannot come to good.” This is stating that Hamlet has to deal with the circumstances whether in favor or not. The literary devices and techniques did help portray Hamlet’s emotions.