Break of Day
By: John Donne
‘Tis true, ‘tis day, what though it be?
O wilt thou therefore rise from me?
Why should we rise because ‘tis light?
Structure of the poem
This poem has 18 lines with 3 stanzas
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.
Must business thee from hence remove?
Oh, that’s the worst disease of love,
The poor, the foul, the false, love can
Admit, but not the busied man.
He which hath business, and makes love, doth do
Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo.
With a rhyme scheme of 9 pairs
John donne
• He was born on January 22 1572 and died on March 31 1631 in New
England
• His poems are mostly love and religion. also known for his vibrancy of
language and inventiveness of metaphors
• Another important theme he has is true religion
• Donnie lived in poverty for several years even with his intelligence relyed
heavily on other people for money
Speaker
• The speaker within this poem is a women because it says “and that I loved
my heart and honour so, that I would not from him, that had them go”
• Also because it is about a man going to work and is women having to stay
home and missing him
Theme
• The theme or lesson to be learned in this poem is that when the sun comes
up you must go to work and when the sun sets the person you love will
return
Authors purpose
• Is to show that no matter what class you are in you must work and when the
sunrises it is time to go and when it sets its time to return
Authors meaning
• The authors meaning is that when the sunrises its time to leave and go to
work and when the sunsets that person will return
Rhyme
• “tis true, tis day, what though it be”
• “o wilt thou therefore rise from me”
Personification
• “light hath no tongue, but is all eye”
Metaphor
• “did we lie down because twas night?”
Imagery
• “should in despite of light keep us together”
• “why should we rise because tis light”