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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? 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;
BREAK OF DAY/DAWN definition: 1. the time when the sun rises in the morning: 2. the time when the sun rises in the morning: . Learn more.
- Summary
- Themes
- Meaning
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Similar Poetry
‘Break of Day’ by John Donne conveys a woman’s understanding of her busy lover’s dedication, or lack thereof, to their relationship. The poem begins with the speakerasking several questions regarding her partner’s interpretation of sunrise. She doesn’t feel that just because the sun has come up that he should leave their bed. She sees the sun as la...
The main theme of this poem is love. Specifically, the speaker is concerned with how a busy man, her lover, deals with their love affair. He treats their love as a married man would treat his mistress—secondary. She’s always going to come after his work.
The meaning is that a man who is busy/dedicated to his work is a worse lover than anyone else. He is always going to put his partners second to his work. The speaker asks her partner several rhetorical questions, challenging his decision to leave their bed at the break of the day and return to work. She doesn’t believe that just because the sun has...
‘Break of Day’ by John Donne is a three-stanza poem divided into sets of six lines. These sestets are composed of rhyming couplets. For example, “be” and “me” and “light” and “night” in stanzaone. The first four lines of each stanza are written in iambic tetrameter, while the final two lines, aside from a few exceptions, are written in iambic penta...
Throughout this poem, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to: 1. Assonance: the repetitionof the same vowel sounds in multiple words. For example, “O wilt thou therefore rise from me” uses the same “o” sound. 2. Imagery: the use of particularly effective descriptions that should inspire the reader’s sen...
Stanza One
In the first stanza, the poet begins by asking four rhetoricalquestions. These are questions are delivered from a female perspective and are asked only to make a point, not hoping for a response. She ponders why she and her lover should rise from their bed and leave one another. Donne uses his classic, clever turns of phrase to challenge the assumption that because it’s “light,” “we rise.” Donne’s female speaker asks if they lay down together only because it was dark or, as she believes, ther...
Stanza Two
In the second sestet or set of six lines, the speaker personifies“Light,” specifically the sun’s light. It, she says, has “no tongue, but is all eye.” The light can’t control them, she reiterates; in fact, it’s there “as…a spy” only to watch them and interrupt their love-making. She’d be “fain” to stay, or she’d happily stay with him. She loves him, honors him, and thinks that he feels the same way about her. All this makes the entire situation more difficult for her to deal with.
Stanza Three
In the final stanza, the speaker asks if “business” or the chores of daily life, the man’s job, or his desire to do something else is taking him away from her. The fact that there is anything other than staying in bed to do is the “worst disease of love” (an example of a metaphor). Love can touch everyone fully, but the “busied man,” the speaker says. She knows that someone like her lover has no real time for love. If he were less dedicated to his job, less true and honorable, and worse at lo...
Readers who enjoyed ‘Break of Day’ should also consider reading some other John Donne poems. For example: 1. ‘The Flea‘ – is the poet’s most famous poem. In it, he uses one of his brilliant conceits to convince his love to sleep with him. 2. ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning‘ – uses one of his famous conceits to depict the steadfast nature of his...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
BREAK OF DAY - Synonyms, related words and examples | Cambridge English Thesaurus
Popularity of “Break of Day”: The poem Break of Day was written by John Donne, a great English metaphysical poet, scholar, and writer. It is a descriptive poem that explains how the surroundings can easily influence love, and such influences can create differences.
The break of day or the break of dawn is the time when it begins to grow light after the.... Click for English pronunciations, examples sentences, video.
break of day: [noun phrase] the time of day when sunlight first begins to appear : dawn.
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