Explore the ways in which power is presented in this poem.

In ‘The Sun Rising’, power is presented in the form of love, importance and authority
between the Sun and the lovers. The Sun is supposedly a symbol of great power and life,
however, the speaker of the poem reverts that power to him and his lover. Donne uses the
conceit of his lover and bed as the world, to highlight the power of love.

In Stanza one, Donne insults the Sun and scolds it, undermining the great importance and
power of the Sun that keeps the world warm and alive. He personifies the Sun as a “Busy
old fool”, “unruly” and a “Saucy pedantic wretch”. The speaker’s tone is angry and
annoyed. The plosive sounds in “Saucy pedantic wretch” emphasises his anger. Likewise,
he asserts power of the Sun by using imperatives: “go chide”, “Go tell court huntsmen”,
“Call country ants to harvest offices”. He asks the Sun to go where it can be more helpful,
to bother schoolboys even though they might not welcome it like himself. All these tasks
the speaker directs the Sun to do is also so mundane which once again undermines the
Sun’s greater purpose of being the source of life on the planet. In the second line, he
questions the Sun’s purpose of intruding him and his lover, questioning why love has to
be controlled by time. The speaker concludes stanza one by presenting his belief on the
power of love. Donne states the love “no season knows, nor clime, / Nor hours, days,
months, which are the rags of time.” The rhyming couplet at the end reinforces the
statement of the power of love, it is whole and complete.

In Stanza two, Donne belittles the Sun and asserts his own superiority.

He claims that he could “eclipse and cloud” its beams “with a wink”, he could exercise
superiority over the Sun in the blink of an eye, however he chooses not to for the sight of
his lover. His devotion to the sight of his lover also shows the power of love that takes
over him. Furthermore, he continues to use hyperbole to describe the power that him and
his lover holds. He states that his lover could blind the Sun: “If her eyes have not blinded
thine”. He references exotic places where spices and precious metals are found to
compare with the greatness of his lover, asking the Sun to “Look” at “Whether both
th’Indias of spice and mine” are where you last saw them or “lie here with me”. All that
beauty is in his lover. The speaker’s tone is calmer in this stanza as he speaks of him and
his lover. The speaker concludes stanza three by telling the Sun to “Ask for those kings”
about where all these riches might be, and they will say that it is “all here in one bed lay”.
All the power is on him and his lover’s bed.

In Stanza three, Donne continues to describe him and his lover as the universe and
reinforces the power of love. He uses hyperbolic metaphors to emphasise their love’s
worth: “She is all states, and all princes I, / Nothing else is.”. The full stop at the end of
that statement affirms his belief. He is confident that love is the greatest and love is them.
He states that “Princes do but play us”, the power of their love is the real power, royalty
‘mimics’ them. “All wealth alchemy”, all other wealth ‘mimics’ them as well but they are
false and only him and his lover are the real wealth. They are everything as stated by the
word “all”.

Donne continues to compare the Sun with his love: “Thou sun art half as happy as we”.
The Sun is seen as a symbol of happiness but the fact their happiness is double of the
Sun’s is to reflect on how their love is greater than everything of the Sun. Additionally,
“contracted” could mean how everything else is smaller than the power of their love. The
speaker reminds the Sun of its old “age” and “duties” to take it easy warming the world.
He tells the Sun to “Shine here to us” as their bed, a symbol of their love, is the “centre”
of the universe and their room is the “sphere” in which the Sun will revolve around. In
Donne’s time, astronomers were investigating the possibility of the planets orbiting the
Sun. However, the speaker of the poem reverses that role and puts him and his lover at
the centre of the solar system.

To conclude, the speaker expresses that time is meaningless to lovers. Once you find
love, everything else is disregarded. This poem reflects on love that is free from time and
change.