Breake of day
'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 downe, because 'twas night?Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether,Should in despight of light keepe us together.
Light hath no tongue, but is all eye;If it could speake as well as spie,This were the worst, that it could say,That being well, I faine would stay,And that I lov'd my heart and honor so,That I would not from him, that had them, goe.
Must businesse thee from hence remove?Oh, that's the worst disease of love,The poore, the foule, the false, love canAdmit, but not the busied man.He which hath businesse, and makes love, doth doeSuch wrong, as when a maryed man doth wooe.
Words in this poem
- spight n.
- A woodpecker. See Speight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Breake of day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #48688; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Donne, Breake of day, in Poems (1633), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #48688, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/donne-poems/breake-of-day.html, id L19847.
Form and metre
Breake of day is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC beA · meA · lightB · nightB · hetherC · togetherC
- 2 AABBCC eyeA · spieA · sayB · stayB · soC · goeC
- 3 AABBCC removeA · loveA · canB · manB · doeC · wooeC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be? | 8 | ········ |
| O wilt thou therefore rise from me? | 8 | ········ |
| Why should we rise, because 'tis light? | 8 | ········ |
| Did we lie downe, because 'twas night? | 8 | ········ |
| Love which in spight of darknesse brought us hether, | 11 | ··········· |
| Should in despight of light keepe us together. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Light hath no tongue, but is all eye; | 8 | ········ |
| If it could speake as well as spie, | 8 | ········ |
| This were the worst, that it could say, | 8 | ········ |
| That being well, I faine would stay, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And that I lov'd my heart and honor so, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That I would not from him, that had them, goe. | 10 | ·········· |
| Must businesse thee from hence remove? | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Oh, that's the worst disease of love, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The poore, the foule, the false, love can | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Admit, but not the busied man. | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| He which hath businesse, and makes love, doth doe | 11 | ··········· |
| Such wrong, as when a maryed man doth wooe. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 7
Herbert Grierson's record of the readings of the early editions and manuscripts, from his Poems of John Donne (Oxford, 1912; Project Gutenberg #48688).
- Stanza 1, line 1 day;] day, 1633
- Stanza 1, line 5 in spight of 1633-39, 1669, A25, JC, S96: in dispight 1650-54, A18, D, H40, H49, L74, Lec, N, S, TC
- Stanza 2, line 3 were] is A18, L74, N, O'F, S TC
- Stanza 2, line 5 I lov'd] I love JC, N, O'F, TC
- Stanza 2, line 6 him, that had them 1633-54, D, H49, Lec, S: him that had them (or it) A25, B, C, L74, N, O'F, TC: her, that had them, 1669: her that hath them B, JC (it), S96
- Stanza 3, line 3 foule,] foole, H40
- Stanza 3, line 6 as when ... doth 1633, 1669, A25, C, D, H40, H49, Lec, S, S96: as if ... should A18, B, JC, L74, N, O'F, TC: as when ... should 1635-54
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