Old English Context

It's no secret that a country or culture's literature is an accurate depiction of the culture or country itself. Literature, whether intended or not, tends to be very faithful to a culture's history, philosophy, and daily life. Therefore, more can be learned from a piece of literature by looking at its historical and cultural context, than from the piece itself.

Although the English countryside was involved in numerous wars throughout all of its history, the time period between Beowulf's earliest attributed authorship in the 8th century to Geoffrey Chaucer's death in 1400 was a time of seemingly endless war and turmoil throughout all of Britain. The fall of the Roman Empire immediately left Roman-Britain open to invasions from the Germanic, Scandinavian, and Irish peoples of nearby countries, as well as the native peoples of Scotland and Wales.



This resulted in centuries of war, in order to gain control of the British island. The most successful foreign invaders of this early period would be the Germanic Angles and Saxons (Depicted in red and brown respectively).

However, starting around late 8th century, the British island (along with the rest of Europe) became a popular destination for invading Vikings. By the end of the 9th century Norwegian and Danish armies had established very large settlements in Britain.

Soon after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, invaders from Normandy, originally a Viking settlement in the Frankish kingdom itself led by William the Conqueror, laid came to just about all of what's considered modern-day England.

Throughout this time period, Beowulf, in its current form, was compiled from generations of folk tales of myth and war brought to Britain by the Germanic and Scandinavian invaders. The themes expressed in Beowulf such as, kinship, rivalries, honor, military prowess, religion, courage, good and evil, etc. are all universal themes that are understandable in all of these civilizations. Not only that, but along with the proud and die-hard religious attitudes of the poem, these are themes that are dealt with on a daily basis during this period in Britain.

Though, the matter of lordship and knighthood is treated as a sort of pro-military propaganda in Beowulf (as it was in most heroic epic poems), it was given a much less fantastical and more introspective treatment in The Wanderer. In this Old English poem, the knight is alone without a kingdom as his lord and his comrades were all killed in battle. Just as many kingdoms fell during this period, many knights found themselves wandering alone.

 

Norman England would soon become part of the Angevin Empire, which included the various kingdoms of modern-day France. However once that Empire lost its grip under the rule of King John, England would go on to have political unrest and be involved in various wars (both civil and foreign) most notably with the French and Scottish. 

The political treachery, constant squabbling for the crown of England, and various social upheavals of the time would go on to further influence the (often more humorous) works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Donne as well. Knowledge of the history and culture of the time should is totally necessary for full appreciation of these authors and their works.

At the Center of the Sphere

John Donne's use of aubade elements in "The Sun is Rising" and "Break of Day" plays well with his somewhat pessimistic view of English society around him and its awkward collision with natural human emotions. The recurring scene of two lovers waking to the realization that their time is gone seems to be portrayed with different reflections, different emotions, and of course different metaphors every time it appears. The bedroom, as it's portrayed in these poems as well as Elegy 19, is an ideal world where naked bodies are explored, natural beauty is realized and admired, and emotions, which remain tamed in public society, are free to flow wildly. Outside of this sphere, the sun, society, duties, business, and days of anticipation await the lovers as they exit. The female speaker in "Break of Day" best expresses this exhaustion with her lover's busy schedule with the final couplet of the poem, "He which hath business, and makes love doth do/ Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo."
Donne playfully uses the metaphors of geographical exploration and parallels between the female body and a land rich with natural resources in these works. Most blatantly (and maybe chauvinistically) in lines 21-22 of "The Sun is Rising", Donne says that she is the world's nations and he is the world's princes. In Elegy 19 he also refers to his lover as his kingdom, his empire, and (perhaps not very flatteringly) his mine of precious stones. The lover is the newly discovered land which Donne explores, and together they make up this metaphysical world away from the world. This world, special and exclusive to the two lovers, is the center of the universe. It's in this newly created world that Donne (or the speaker) and his lover are free explore eachother's minds, bodies, and hearts.
Mind you this isn't just sex for physical satisfaction, but for spiritual fulfillment. Although these lines are generally blurry but considered to be distinct from eachother, Elegy 19 states in line 34, "As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be,". Donne had a very strong sense of pure, natural beauty which was probably seen as purely sexual by many. But, this ideal world of natural beauty could only exist apart from society's corruption and exploitation. The world that Donne created, at the center of the sun's orbit, was a world made by lovers with love, so that their spirits, unbound, could explore the joys of love together.
However, the sun glimmering in through the curtains in the beginning of "The Sun is Rising" always provides a harsh reminder that life cannot be lived from inside a bed room. Emotions must remain hidden, desires must be suppressed, and business must go on in public society. English society, much unlike the bedroom, was no place for naked love to be expressed.