The Sun Rising by John Donne

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The Sun Rising by John Donne

"The Sun Rising" by John Donne uses figurative, rhetorical and hyperbole techniques to demonstrate the displacement of the outside world in favor of two lovers' inner world and how the sun fulfils its duties by revolving around their bedroom.

Donne uses figurative language throughout the poem. The first stanza compares the sun to a "Busy old fool" (1) and "Through windows, and through curtains call on us?" (3) is figurative language for eyes. A wink allows the sun to come into the lovers' inner world. The reader knows the lovers' bedroom is not the center of the world and the sun does not "contract[ed]" around their bed.

Donne's displacement of the outside world, in favor of the lovers' inside world, uses a rhetorical technique to attempt to prove by reason the durability and power of a couples love. When Donne asks why the sun "calls on us?" (3), "Why shouldst thou think?" (12) and "Must to [the sun's] motions lovers' seasons run?" Donne expects you to already know the answers. He uses this language to help you pass beyond the limits of the material world by disregarding external influences and coercing the sun to rotate around the lovers instead.

Figurative language and rhetorical technique are combined with hyperbole to change the outside world to revolve around the lovers' inner world. Dunne pushes the sun away telling it to "go chide" (5) and in stanza twenty-nine "Shine here to us, and thou are everywhere" (29). These are exaggerations for the sake of emphasis putting the lovers at the center of the world.

Figurative,

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