The Sun Rising: Key Poetic Devices

Assonance and Consonance

Assonance and consonance are sibling concepts, in that they both refer to the repetition of certain sounds in adjacent or nearby words. Assonance specifically refers to the repetition of vowel sounds, whereas consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds. Donne uses both devices in concert throughout the poem, sometimes to euphonious and sometimes to cacophonous effect. Consider the opening lines for a representative example. Here, Donne uses a variety of short and long O and U sounds:

Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

The predominance of this vowel family gives the passage a mellifluous quality. Yet these same lines also feature repeating L, S, and TH sounds that initially create euphony but eventually result in cacophony:

Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

The combination of L and S sounds in the first line amplify the sweet sound of the O and U sounds. However, when the speaker introduces TH sounds in the second line, the consonance takes on a “thicker” quality, reflecting the speaker’s increased irritation. The density of S and TH sounds slows the language down, particularly in moments when consonants cluster, as in the phrase “dost thou thus.” This play of euphony and cacophony reflects the humorous fact that Donne’s love poem opens with expressions of abuse rather than adoration.

Overstatement

Overstatement, which is also known by the term hyperbole (hi-PER-buh-lee), refers to examples of extravagant exaggeration. Poets often use overstatement for comic effect, and Donne follows this trend. Take, for instance, the speaker’s bold claim about outshining the sun (lines 11–18):

   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;
   If her eyes have not blinded thine,
   Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,
   Whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
   Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.

The speaker’s boast in these lines is ridiculous and amusing. Looking directly into the sun’s “reverend and strong” beams would almost certainly blind the speaker, but he insists that he “could eclipse and cloud them with a wink.” And yet the speaker seems slyly aware of how empty his boast really is. He says he could outshine the sun if he wanted to, but he won’t even try because he “would not lose [his lover’s] sight so long.” As the speaker carries on with his boast, the humor begins to dissipate as he shifts the emphasis of the boast from himself to his lover: “If her eyes have not blinded thine.” No longer claiming to be able to outshine the sun himself, the speaker reveals the true source of his earlier hubris: the powerful affection he feels for his lover. Ultimately, then, overstatement functions in the poem primarily as a device for showcasing the intensity of the speaker’s love.

Personification and Apostrophe

Personification refers to instances where a poet invests an inanimate object or abstract concept with human-like attributes or feelings. This literary device is central to Donne’s poem, which personifies the sun as a human-like figure. Most often in poetry, personification is a passing phenomenon. That is, a poet might briefly describe flowers as “dancing in the wind” or the turbulent ocean as “a cruel sea.” In Donne’s poem, however, the speaker personifies the sun at length, humorously casting this entity, with its intrusive rays of light, as a “busy old fool” (line 1) and a “saucy pedantic wretch” (line 5). With these designations, the speaker invests the sun with human-like intention and agency. The speaker further develops this investment when he commands the sun to go perform other, more pressing duties (lines 5–8):

                   go chide
   Late school boys and sour prentices,
   Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride
   Call country ants to harvest offices

The directness of the speaker’s address to the sun in these lines helps showcase a key way personification works in the poem. An address such as this is an example of apostrophe (uh-PAW-struh-fee), which occurs whenever a speaker directly addresses an absent person or else an abstract entity. Here, the speaker’s address to the sun implicitly projects a human-like addressee.

Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions aren’t generally meant to be answered. Rather, writers use them to make a point or to create a dramatic effect. In Donne’s poem, the speaker uses rhetorical questions to express his disdain for the sun. His first two rhetorical questions open the poem, humorously establishing his sense of power over the sun (lines 1–4):

Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

Before it’s clear that he’s posing a rhetorical question, the speaker hurls abusive language at the sun. Only after this initial bout of invective does the speaker make his point plain, asking the sun why it has dared to bother him and his lover in their bed. The speaker’s first two rhetorical questions immediately establish his irritation as well as his implicit superiority. Whereas the speaker has important things to attend to, the sun is little more than an old busybody with nothing better to do. As such, the speaker refuses to abide by the sun’s “motions.” The speaker makes a more explicit claim to superiority with his third rhetorical question (lines 11–13):

Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink

The speaker doesn’t really want to know why the sun thinks it’s so powerful. He merely asks this question to set up his claim that he could outshine the sun if he so desired.

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