Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys, and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
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 the’Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear: ‘All here in one bed lay.’
She’is all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compar’d to this,
All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy’as we,
In that the world’s contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.
For many people the sun is the centre of the universe. However, in The Sun Rising, John Donne implies that the speaker’s love affair is so important, that the centre of the universe is his bedroom. “This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.”
Indeed, the sun is a mere inconvenience to the man in love. “Busy old fool, unruly Sun/Why dost thou thus,/Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?”. The speaker doesn’t want the sun interrupting his love life. He doesn’t need outside interference, as his inner feelings give him the satisfaction that he needs.
This idea of inner feelings giving satisfaction rather than a meaning coming from the outside world can also be seen in Denny Bradbury’s Searching, Searching, Searching.
This work by Denny was inspired by an observation of someone who is always looking for an outside balance to life. However, like the speaker in The Sun Rising, Denny believes that it’s inside that the answer will be found. Denny may not have been inspired by love, like the speaker in Donne’s work, but it’s clear that she believes nature may not be the centre of the universe in terms of personal feelings :
‘Within myself the answer lies’.
Like Donne, there is a clear distinction in Denny’s work between the outside world and the world inside your body. “the grass between your feet/is soft and green and welcoming/the place where two worlds meet.” For Denny, the outside world is not as much as a distraction compared to the speaker in The Sun Rising.
Denny shows how life goes on despite the constant change of nature and the outside world: ‘So when the rain blots out the sun/or wind whips clouds in view/ ’tis certain sure I will survive/of all, now, this is true.’ This idea is also seen through Donne’s speaker, who also believes that true feelings can eclipse whatever the outside world can throw at you. ‘Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,/Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.’
Searching, Searching, Searching
Searching, searching always searching
the grass beneath your feet
is soft and green and welcoming
the place where two worlds meet.
Look down and see the planet earth
so brown and green and blue
look up and there is more to come
the light shines down on you.
“Oh where oh where is what I seek
what is my soul to do?
There is nothing new for me yet
I need to know the who,
the whys and wherefores, how its done
what makes us stand alone
our need to drive the rest to ground
what price the moral zone?
Within myself the answer lies
for it is plain to see
expose the heart that rests and hides
and there is more to me.
So when the rain blots out the sun
or wind whips clouds in view
’tis certain sure I will survive
of all, now, this is true.
I stand before the world to show
that this is how I’m made
naked as through the glass of life
no longer in the shade!
Denny Bradbury Books 