Literary Devices in The Sun Rising

Line twenty-eight includes a diacope, or the repetition of a word (either exactly or with slight variations) with intervening words in between. As with other forms of rhetorical repetition, diacope heightens the emotional impact of a line by expanding upon ideas or elevating the urgency of the speaker’s words. Here, Donne’s repetition of the verb “to warm” makes the speaker’s claim more forceful—the sun, according to the speaker, has a duty to warm the world, and since the speaker says the world is his shared bed, then the sun can fulfill its duty if it remains in the bedroom to warm the bed.

Donne uses anaphora, or the repetition of words at the beginning of successive lines or phrases, in this line. Here, the repetition of the word “all” reinforces rhythm while also drawing attention to the speaker’s boisterous claims about the qualities of the intimate relationship he shares with his lover.

Lines seventeen and eighteen are enjambed. Enjambment is when a phrase or idea flows from one line into the next, rather than concluding at the end of its originating line. In this case, enjambment builds anticipation and pace to bring in the speaker’s bold claims that his shared bed is the world.

Donne employs sibilance, or the repetition of words containing the letter “s,” in this line. When read aloud, the successive “s” sounds in the words “lose,” “sight,” and “so” create a hissing sound. Though sibilance can contribute to a harsher tone, such as in the previous stanza, it lends musicality to the speaker’s exaggerated expression of love here, as he claims that he could banish the sun with a wink but won’t because he would miss looking at his lover too much.

The entirety of “The Sun Rising” is an apostrophe, or an address to something or someone who does not respond. In this context, the speaker’s address to the unresponsive sun heightens the poem’s emotional intensity and allows him to challenge the sun’s authority, claiming that the sun has no say in whether or not he spends the day in bed with his lover. In this way, the apostrophe enables Donne to engage concretely with the abstract concept of love.

The final two lines of the first stanza features figurative language to emphasize the speaker’s point about love. Here, the speaker underscores the power of mutual love by declaring that it transcends “the rags of time” Donne continues in the second stanza, in which the speaker asserts that his lover’s eyes are more brilliant than the sun’s light and that the world’s kings “whom [the sun] saw’st yesterday” are present in their bed.

Donne personifies the sun when he describes it as a “busy old fool” that is “unruly.” Personification is a device in which human characteristics are assigned to nonhuman things. The sun is a star and therefore does not have human-like attributes; however, portraying it as a human-like character enables the speaker to more effectively and memorably make his claims.

The poem begins with a caesura, a device in which a line of verse is broken up by punctuation—such as a period, comma, em dash (—), or ellipsis (...). By interrupting the first line with a comma, Donne creates a pause that emphasizes the unflattering words used to describe the sun: “busy old fool” and “unruly.” Thus, the caesura develops the poem’s tone while also immediately varying its rhythm.