John Donne lived in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in London, England, born to a fairly well-off family although there were struggles after his father died while he was young. He was raised Roman Catholic, although the Anglican Church was still very influential at the time. He began a promising political career by using his inheritance to travel across Europe and was able to work as the secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Seal, a prominent position in the English government.

Although he held great promise, his political career was cut short after he fell in love with, and secretly married the Lord Keeper’s niece, Anne More near the end of 1601. Eventually, her uncle and father (also a prominent and influential member of the government) found out and arrested John, as well as the minister who married them. When the marriage was proved valid, the two were released, but Donne was fired from his position and eventually became a cleric in the Church of England. During this time, John and Anne bore twelve children, the last of which was a stillborn, born after a difficult pregnancy that also took the life of Anne More. John Donne, as well as his ten surviving children, grieved heavily for their loss.

All records suggest that John Donne loved his wife deeply, and it makes sense to think of her as being the woman written about in this poem. It could be a simple tribute to the time they were allowed to spend together after Donne’s release from prison, or it could be a reference to the time they spent together before their marriage was discovered; that the reason the sun rising is such a dismaying realization is because it means their time together is ended since they cannot be seen in public for fear of discovery. To say that she is the only important thing also makes a little more sense in the light of Donne’s political career, since he would have held a very important position — but it is not important at all, compared to what he has with the love of his life, who is more important and warmer and life-affirming than even the sun rising.