Break of Day: 'Tis True, 'Tis Day; what Though i
The speaker addresses a lover urging that day's arrival need not part them. The speaker questions why daybreak should force them to rise, since it was not nightfall that made them lie down together, and argues that the love which brought them together despite darkness should keep them together despite light. The speaker personifies light as having no tongue but only an eye to watch, and claims that if light could speak as well as spy, the worst it could report is that the speaker, being well, wished to stay, and loved heart and honour so much that the speaker would not leave the one who possessed them. The speaker then asks whether business must remove the lover from this place, calling this the worst disease of love. The speaker states that love can admit the poor, the foul, and the false, but not the busied man, and concludes that one who has business and also makes love does as much wrong as a married man who woos.
By John Donne · First published 1633 · Genre: Metaphysical Poetry, Aubade, Love Poetry · 222 words
First lines
'Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be? / O, wilt thou therefore rise from me? / Why should we rise because 'tis light? / Did we lie down because 'twas night? / Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither, / Should in despite of light keep us together.
Light hath no tongue, but is all eye; / If it could speak as well as spy, / This were the worst that it could say, / That being well I fain would stay, / And that I loved my heart and honour so, / That I would not from him, that had them, go.
What this Textopian page supports
Break of Day: 'Tis True, 'Tis Day; what Though it Be is listed on Textopian as a poem by John Donne, dated 1633 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: John Donne
- Date: 1633 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Metaphysical Poetry, Aubade, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Poetry
- Length: 222 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)
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- Work identity for Break of Day: 'Tis True, 'Tis Day; what Though it Be by John Donne
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Similar titles
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- The Flea by John Donne
- Parting Friends by Walt Whitman
- Air And Angels by John Donne
- A Lecture Upon The Shadow by John Donne
- A Valediction Of Weeping by John Donne
Genres
- Metaphysical Poetry — Donne's signature style employing elaborate conceits, complex intellectual arguments, and philosophical exploration of love; uses light as extended metaphor for consciousness and reason
- Aubade — A dawn poem depicting lovers debating separation at daybreak; Donne unconventionally inverts the traditional aubade form by arguing against parting rather than lamenting it
- Love Poetry — Centrally explores romantic attachment, desire, and devotion between two lovers, with emotional urgency and personal intensity in confronting inevitable separation
- Lyric Poetry — Expresses subjective emotion and intimate feeling through verse with rhythmic musicality, direct address to the beloved, and personal emotional revelation
Tags
metaphysical poetry · dawn · morning · love poetry · parting · melancholy · time · mortality · 17th century · English literature · romantic · philosophical