The Good-Morrow/The Flea — A Comparison

Donne’s poem The Good-Morrow offers the original recipient to whom the poem is written to, a proclamation of the speaker’s love, a celebration of their unparalleled connection. Although both speakers call out to their lovers to not attach to the normal meanings and practices relating to love, each speaker’s perceived desire heavily differ.

The primary theme that can be inferred in The Good-Morrow is the speaker’s awakening. The speaker describes his life with hints of disdain and contempt in the first stanza. looking down on his past self before a volta in the 8th line, where he re-emerges with a different perception on life and its meaning at large, after experiencing this newfound connection to his lover. “If ever any beauty I did see/…’twas but a dream of thee” proclaims the speaker, who admits that any level of attraction or love felt before meeting whom he is speaking to, pales in contrast to the love he is currently experiencing, perceiving it as a dream that is merely imitating something infinitely better.

The awakening that was triggered by this love calls his lover to action. The speaker calls his lover as they distance themselves from societal norm, calling her to ‘let sea-discoverers to new worlds’ and ‘let maps to others’, reassuring her that their love promotes them to a life that means more than career success and that no matter the great achievements of others, they are still superior, as they ‘possess one world, each hath one, and is one.’ This last line from the second stanza can be interpreted in a…