Commentary for "The Good-Morrow"

In “The Good-Morrow”, John Donne uses repetition in the diction to emphasize the idea of found true love. With a structure of three stanzas, Donne uses repeating punctuation, words and letters. In doing this, Donne is making a statement about the past, present and future of his and his lover’s life together.
Donne begins emphasizing the idea of found true love in his first stanza. He begins by commenting on their past, and what life was like before they found one another. He uses repeating punctuation such as question marks to emphasize his wonder with what they both did before they found each other. He then ends the stanza with repeating commas and semicolons as he discusses the past he’s putting behind him and that he’s with his love now. By using this punctuation Donne creates a series of short phrases emphasizing, without elaboration, that the past is the past and that he’s changed and now with his true love.
In the second stanza, Donne discusses the present he and his love are now sharing. He connects back to the idea of found love by discussing that since they found each other now, the must do a series of things. By repeating the word “love”, Donne connects back to his idea of a found true love as if he can’t get over how in love he is with her. He then begins the last three lines of the stanza with the word “Let” as if they must accept how their love makes them feel, and do many things together because they must not waste time after finding one another.
Lastly, Donne discusses the future of their relationship. In the three middle lines of the stanza, he begins with the words, “Where”, “Without” and “Whatever”, repeating words with the letter “W”. In this, he emphasizes that they would not be able to find anyone else better in the future without searching great distances over a great deal of time. He also emphasizes the idea that if their love does not stay strong, it is because they are not a perfect fit. In this he continues to emphasize the idea that they have a found true love by stating that they would need to travel far to find two more perfect people and that if their relationship does not stay strong, though they have found each other now, it is because they are an unequal fit.
In “The Good-Morrow”, John Donne uses repetition in the diction to emphasize the idea of found true love. By using repeating punctuation, words and letters Donne walks through the past, present, and future of his and his lover’s lives. In this Donne creates a beautiful piece of poetry about the happiness true love brings.