THE GOOD MORROW
‘The Good-Morrow’ by John Donne was published in 1633. The poem is divided into three stanzas of seven lines that conform to a rhyming pattern of ABABCCC.

The first four lines introduce something about the speaker’s love. While the next three reflect more deeply on the topic and sometimes provide an answer to a previously posed question.
The poem begins with the speaker noting how his life, and his lover’s, did not truly begin until they met. Up until they came together they were like children suckling from their mother’s breasts. He knows now that any pleasure he has previously was fake. His current love is the only real thing he has ever experienced.

In the next stanza, he describes how there is no way for their love to fail because it controls everything he sees. His whole life is driven by it, therefore he has no reason to want anything outside of their small bedroom. The poem concludes with the speaker stating that their love is balanced like a healthy body. Their emotional and physical states are connected so deeply that nothing can go wrong.

In the first stanza of ‘The Good-Morrow’, the speaker begins with three questions. They all inquire into the state of his and his lover’s lives before they were known to one another. He wonders allowed, addressing his lover, what “by my troth” (or what in the world) they did before they loved. This question and those which follow are rhetorical. He does not expect a real answer.
In the next line, he asks if they were “not weaned till then.” He does not believe the two were truly adults, separated from their mother’s milk until they met. Their lives did not begin until they gave up “country pleasures.” They became more sophisticated and less dependent on childish pleasures.
In the fourth line, he asks if they were sleeping like the “Seven Sleepers.” This is a reference to a story regarding seven children buried alive by a Roman emperor. Rather than dying, they slept through their long entombment to be found almost 200 years later. It is like the speaker has his lover were in stasis until they could be unearthed at the proper time and brought together.

The second stanza is structured in a similar way in which the first four lines introduce a reader to another aspect of the relationship. He describes how now, in their “good-morrow’ they will live in happiness together. There will be no need to “watch…one anther out of fear.” Their relationship is perfect.
In the following lines, the speaker is proving that any temptation outside is worthless. His eyes are controlled by love, therefore everything he sees is transformed by his adoration. He speaks of a small room that contains everything on earth. There is no reason for him to leave the bedroom he shares with his lover.
The next three lines make use of anaphora with the repetition of the starting word “Let.” The speaker is telling his lover that now that he has this relationship the rest of the world means nothing. The explorers can go out and claim anything and everything they want to. He will be happy to “possess one world” in which they have one another.

The final stanza of ‘The Good-Morrow’ begins with the speaker looking into his lover’s eyes. There he can see his own face and he knows her face appears in his eyes as well. Their heartfelt connection is evident within their faces.
The next lines continue to refer to their bodies/ Donne makes use of conceit, one of the techniques for which he is the best know. In this case, he is comparing their faces to two hemispheres. Unlike the hemispheres of the actual world, their facial hemispheres are perfect. There are no “two better” in the universe. There is no “sharp north” or “declining west.” Donne’s speaker sees himself and his lover as soulmates, they are the other’s missing half.
The last three lines speak on how a lack of balance can cause death. He uses this metaphor to make clear that their love is balanced physically and emotionally. Their perfect balance is accomplished due simply to the presence of the other.