"The Sun Rising" by John Donne was written in the early seventeenth century, a period of significant historical and cultural changes in England, now known as the English Renaissance. This era, spanning roughly the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, saw a revival of interest in classical learning, humanism, and artistic expression. The Renaissance fostered intellectual exploration, challenging traditional views on various aspects of life, including love, science, and religion. "The Sun Rising" captures the era's spirit by asserting the supremacy of love over conventional concerns to echo the broader Renaissance theme of individualism and defiance of long-established norms.

The first of the poem's three stanzas begins with the speaker directly addressing the rising sun. Rather than joyfully greeting the new day, the speaker criticizes the sun with a mixture of annoyance and disdain, much like someone today might grumble at their alarm clock for waking them up earlier than they might like. The speaker does this by personifying the sun, referring to it as a "busy old fool." He questions why the sun insists on intruding into his private space "through windows, and through curtains."

Indicating that there is someone else in bed with him, the speaker rhetorically asks whether the affairs of lovers must be dictated by the sun's movements, dismissing the sun as a "saucy pedantic wretch." The speaker even urges the sun to tell others about the daybreak instead of bothering him. For instance, he suggests that the sun "Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride" in reference to King James I, who ruled England for much of Donne’s life—from 1603 to 1625—and famously enjoyed early morning hunts.

This choice of words conveys a sense of arrogance and impatience towards the sun's perceived interference. The speaker asserts that love is not bound by seasons, geography, or the passage of time. These conventional measures are mere "rags of time," meaning they are of no real importance.

In the second stanza, the speaker's tone toward the sun softens. Perhaps, now that he has had a moment to wake up, there is a shift from initial irritation to a more playful and confident demeanor. He now sees the sunbeams as "reverend and strong." The rebukes of the previous stanza shift to playful teases when he jokingly claims he could easily hide from the sunlight with a mere wink.

However, the speaker refrains from doing so because he does not want to lose sight of his beloved for even a moment. As a way to tell the sun to go elsewhere, the speaker challenges it to check whether distant lands like the "Indias of spice and mine" remain in their places or if they are now present in the speaker's bed, indicating that all things of proper value are in bed with him and, in doing so, extolling the endless virtues of his lover. 

In the third and final stanza of "The Sun Rising," the speaker describes his beloved as encompassing "all states, and all princes." This elevates her above worldly matters. To him, nothing beyond the confines of the bed has any importance. He dismisses the pursuits of princes as child's play compared to the profound connection he shares with his beloved. In doing so, the speaker diminishes traditional markers of honor and wealth as mere imitations that pale in comparison to the authenticity of his love.

Still addressing the sun, the speaker claims that it is only "half as happy as we" to emphasize the fulfillment he gets from the intimacy shared with his partner. As the poem ends, it is clear that the speaker's mood has changed since the first stanza. Now, instead of trying to banish the sun, he welcomes it. The sun can accomplish its role of warming the world by warming the two lovers. Just as the speaker sees his bed as the entirety of the world, the sun can shine on it as if that were all that mattered.

Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.