Analyze Donne’s Duplicity as a Lover in His Poems ‘ Go and Catch a Falling Star’ and ‘the Sun Rising’

John Donne is not only the greatest love poet of his time, but also surpasses the limitation of times. Donne’s greatness as a love-poet arises from the fact that his poetry covers a wider range of emotions. He was the first English poet to challenge and break the supremacy of Petrarchan tradition. Though at times he adopts the Petrarchan devices, yet his imagery and rhythm, texture and color of his love poetry is different. There are three distinct strains of his love poetry – Cynical, Platonic and Conjugal love.
The Sun Rising is one of Donne’s popular and widely read love poems. It is love poem of an unusual kind. In this poem the poet lover reprimands the Sun and calls it names for disturbing love making. Here as a lover Donne exaggerates his love and his beloved so much that it overlaps the Petrarchan love poetry also. He addresses the Sun as “busy old fool”. He calls it unruly because, by peeping in to the bedroom through windows and curtains it disturbs the lovers. The poet-lover tells the Sun that lovers’ seasons do not run to its motions. He advises the Sun to go and do such routine and dull jobs like chiding late-schoolboys and apprentices, waking up court-huntsmen and peasants. Love knows no season, no climates. It is not affected by time. The poet’s wit is so clear when he tells the Sun that he has no reason to think that his beams are “so reverend and strong”. The poet lover could eclipse and could the beams of the Sun with a wink. He does not do so because he does not wish to “loose her right so long.” He says 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.
The poet-lover knows that the Sun would go to the other half of the world and come to that place at this time tomorrow. The poet-lover asks the Sun to go round the world, see all Kings, come back tomorrow and say if “both the India’s