Break of Day
Break of Day
Original Text
Donne, John. The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Edited by Helen Gardner. London: Oxford University Press, 1965: 35-36.
1‘Tis true, 'tis day ; what though it be?
2O, wilt thou therefore rise from me?
3Why should we rise because 'tis light?
4Did we lie down because 'twas night?
5Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
6Should in despite of light keep us together.
7Light hath no tongue, but is all eye;
8If it could speak as well as spy,
9This were the worst that it could say,
10That being well I fain would stay,
11And that I loved my heart and honour so
12That I would not from him, that had them, go.
13Must business thee from hence remove?
14Oh, that's the worst disease of love,
15The poor, the foul, the false, love can
16Admit, but not the busied man.
17He which hath business, and makes love, doth do
18Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Form