Public-domain source text

Break of Day

by John Donne

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/john-donne_poetry

’Tis True, ’Tis Day; What Though It Be?
’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.
Must business thee from hence remove? O! 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.

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This is a source transcription from Standard Ebooks, published in Past Poetry’s public-domain archive without line-by-line editorial notes. Public-domain source edition. Availability can vary by territory.

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