[Poem] THE GOOD-MORROW - A Brief Exploration of Donne’s Celebratory Vision of Love

The Good-Morrow - John Donne

/The Good-Morrow - John Donne/

An Awakening to Love’s New Horizons

Note: Below is the complete text of John Donne’s The Good-Morrow in the public domain, presented line by line twice. Though both versions are essentially the same (Early Modern English and modern), the repetition reflects the requested format.

Original (Early Modern English) / Modern English (Identical Text)

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then?

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;

Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres

Without sharp North, without declining West?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

John Donne’s “The Good-Morrow,” published in 1633 but likely written earlier, is among his most famous Metaphysical poems. It explores a moment of awakening—literal and metaphorical—where two lovers realize the profound unity and self-sufficiency of their bond.

The poem opens by pondering what life was like before their love, comparing past pleasures to childish or illusory experiences. Donne suggests that all previous attractions were mere dreams, incomplete rehearsals that find their true fulfillment in this newly awakened relationship. In the second stanza, he focuses on the way love reshapes perception. A small room becomes the entire universe, and the lovers need neither distant voyages nor grand discoveries to feel whole.

Donne’s imagery of hemispheres and maps points to a world of exploration—an era when many sought new lands. Here, he shifts that energy inward, implying that real wonder lies in the connection between two souls. The final stanza captures this union through the idea of “better hemispheres” devoid of harsh extremes, suggesting that the lovers’ mutual devotion forms a perfectly balanced world.

In typical Metaphysical fashion, Donne marries intellectual conceits (geography, hemispheres) with deep emotional resonance. The poem’s intimacy is grounded in an almost philosophical conviction: true love transforms everything. Rather than diluting the individual identities of each partner, it merges and elevates them. “The Good-Morrow” remains a vivid testament to how an awakened love can make the lovers’ interior space more expansive than any uncharted territory.

Key points

• Envisions love as a profound awakening, transforming ordinary existence.
• Contrasts past ‘childish’ pleasures with the fullness of mature devotion.
• Invokes imagery of discovery and hemispheres to underscore the lovers’ private ‘world.’
• Embodies the Metaphysical blend of scholarly conceits and tender emotion.