Explanation:

“Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,

And thou shalt hear, all here in one bed lay”

Answer: These lines occur in “The Sun Rising’, a famous love-lyric of John Donne, the leader of the Metaphysical School of Poetry.

In these lines, the poet imagines his bed chamber to be a miniature world in which are crowded together all the kings and kingdoms of the world.

The poet, who is making love to his beloved, feels disturbed at the sun’s peeping so early in the morning through the windows and curtains of his bedroom. He chides the sun saying that it should not suppose its rays to be so effective and so worthy of respect. He can even obliterate its rays in a moment by closing his eyes, but he will not do so, because he does not like to lose sight of the beautiful face of his beloved even for a short time. The poet says with certainty that the brightness of his beloved’s eyes can dazzle the rays of the sun. The poet is proud that he has in his bed chamber both the East and the West Indies, which are noted for their spices and mineral substances respectively. It is a matter of surprise that both these Indies are available in his bed chamber because his sweetheart is both spices and gold mine to him. Further, the poet tells the sun if it searches for those kings whom it saw yesterday (in the past) seated on their thrones in different parts of the world, it will find that all of them have come together in his bedroom. In fact, the poet and his beloved represent respectively all the kings of the world and all the states of the world, rolled into one.

Through these lines, the poet has brought out a beautiful conceit. The world of love and the external world are juxtaposed, and the little world of the lovers is said to be a microcosm of the outside world.