The Sun Rising by John Donne and The Clod and the Pebble by William Blake - Essay Example

Blake’s three-part “The Clod and the Pebble” opens with “Love seecatch, not itself to please, / Nor for itself hath any care” which is stated by the “little Clod of Clay” in some rhythm. The clod is personified as one that sings about a selfless kind of love and knows what true love means for it has been innumerably stepped on in life. As the narrator further confesses the clod to have been “Trodden with the cattle’s feet”, the clod’s filth and humble situation explicate a virtuous character that is trained to deal with hardships so that the knowledge and deed of love become the essence of life. To imagine, the clay merely accepts man’s heavy toil and severe actions that are normally difficult to bear as it allows itself to be utilized as a base to hold moving feet, dwellings, and transport of every day. Thus, the clod proceeds with “But for another gives it ease, / And builds a heaven in hell’s despair” to signify how it sincerely means for love to function on someone else’s sake in generous terms. This is in huge contrast to the attitude of “Pebble of the brook” that claims “Love seecatch only Self to please, / To bind another to its delight” for in its evil selfishness, it sees and cares not about the welfare of others whose loss would even matter in the fulfillment of self-love.

         On the other hand, Donne’s “The Sun Rising” communicates the meaning and significance of love through a speaker who seemingly dares the sun to put his spirit to test as he expresses “Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime”. As though the might of his love could overpower the sun’s strength, he proceeds with a sound of arrogance in tone stating “Thy beams so reverend, and strong / Why should thou think? / I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink.” Unlike the narrator in Blake’s composition, this man is made to illustrate what love is by his speech and pride of a personal story rather than finding relevance with things beyond himself. He is too proud to assume that his lover’s sight can be capable of blinding the sun’s own eyes and his imperative remarks toward the sun demonstrate what love has done to him. As a man who appears to exhibit that he can conquer and ask the sun to “tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride” and to “Call country wants to harvest offices”, he is the type whose image of courage is found in love. Through his overwhelming sense of affection for the woman whom he considers in metaphor to be “all states”, the speaker likely alludes that there is no way he could afford for the love to cease, hoping for the sun “To warm the world, that’s done in warming us” for he is also aware of human weakness and limitations.

         In conclusion, both poems have truly evoked the intended theme of love which Donne and Blake have each individually schemed to capture the reader’s appreciation of beauty for the meaning of love as well as draw into each piece a profound response of learning and reflection. Blake may be wholly perceived to have structured his work by way of differentiating two views of love in his personification of the Little Clod of Clay and the Pebble of the Brook whose thoughtful utterances of love end with “And builds a heaven in hell’s despair” and “And builds a hell in heaven’s despite”, respectively. For Donne, however, the selfish and selfless approach of looking at love transforms to a sharp romantic kind where he seems to render a critical reader to judge the quality of figurative details based on how the speaker delivers an exclamatory mood about the sun. Consequently, he leaves the ending to justify the essential role of the sun in his life of brilliant romance saying “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; / This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.”