Commentary, The Good Morrow

In The Good-Morrow, by John Donne, Donne uses both diction and imagery to help establish the overall loving tone in his writing. This is seen in the way that Donne uses many words through out this poem that carry loving connotations. We see this in the first, second, and third paragraphs, which only reinforces this notion, giving the reader no choice but to recognize the tone of this poem.
In the first paragraph of The Good-Morrow, Donne establishes the bond between him and his “love,” by using very strong diction such as desire. This paints the picture of his ultimate want, which lets us know that he needs her. He also uses words such as wonder to help us see how life was before he and his “love” were together.
In the second paragraph, Donne shows no signs of slowing down the intense diction and imagery. He uses fear to depict how fiercely and carefully they watch each other, even though it is out of love. He also uses visual imagery in his comparison to sea-discoveries, maps, and worlds. He does this to show how epic their love for each other is. He encapsulates their love into a reference to their love, as two individual worlds coming together, which helps us understand just how big and important their love for each other is.
In the third paragraph, Donne also continues his visual imagery in the words eye, face, heart, and die. All of these seem to apply to a human being, and what is more human than to love? I believe he does this to draw parallels to human beings, in which a large portion of human life is love. He also continues to compare his love to planets when he references hemispheres. I once again think he does this to emphasize how important his love is.
As you can see, in The Good-Morrow, by John Donne, Donne uses both strong diction and striking visual imagery to establish the loving tone that is present in this poem. He does this simply to help the cause of his poem and seeing as it is a love poem it helps to use strong language about love.