In John Donne’s “Breake of Day” and “The Sun Rising,” the speakers both display an unwillingness to leave their respective lovers. The predicaments that the speakers are in are the same, since in both poems separation from their loved ones seems imminent. However, the focus of each speaker in the two poems, in that tense moment, is very different. However, in “Breake of Day,” the woman uses logic to identify and refute her lover’s reasons for leaving while in “The Sun Rising” the man primarily exalts and lionizes the overarching importance of their relationship. Ultimately, in “Breake of Day” Donne achieves primarily the idea that out of several factors, the man’s business is the reason for departure, while in “The Sun Rising” Donne achieves primarily the idea that love as a feeling is an all-consuming force that distorts an individual’s viewpoint.
The poem “Breake of Day” is expressed from the female’s point of view. In the second stanza, the phrase “from him” shows that her lover is male. The speaker is addressing her lover. The speaker does not want her lover to leave. The first stanza questions whether the man must get up and leave just because it’s now daylight, emphasizing that their decision to lie down together was, initially, not just based on it being dark. In the second stanza, the speaker says that even though light may find the two lovers in bed together, since light has no tongue, it cannot expose any scandal. However, the speaker emphasizes that even if light could speak, the worst it would be able to say is that the speaker would gladly stay with her man because of her own principles of love and honor. She also says that her man has those principles as well. Donne, as a poet, was part of a group consisting of Metaphysical Poets who used art, history and religion as extended metaphor. He used unusual imagery and syntax in many of his poems. In fact, this poem was actually written as a song and set to music by several contemporary composers. There is a difference in genders that is addressed in the poem. Under the double standard of morality, the woman has risked her “honor” in stanza two to be with him. This second excuse that the man gives for leaving, that he does not want to expose their relationship, reveals that the lovers are unmarried, revealing the reason that “honor” is at risk. The final stanza reveals that the man must rise in order to attend to his business concerns, making it clear that the people involved are not at leisure and are not nobility, but are working folk instead. The idea expressed in this stanza is that business has such high requirements that it forces a man to treat his loved ones the same way that a married man treats his mistress, meaning that he pays her less than full attention. There is a difference in genders because the man is more likely than the woman to be drawn away by “business.” Also, the speaker is complaining against the “busied man” rather than a busied person. Similarly, the speaker compares the offender to a “married man” instead of a married person or a married woman. Their love is just as deep as if it was legitimized by marriage. In the early 17th century, Donne secretly married his boss’s niece, Anne. However, his relationship with her was exposed. The intensity of his love affair influenced his poetry. Thus, in the poem the man cannot have “business,” which is like having a mistress. As the poem progresses, it is clear that in addition to being a love song, it is a complaint about the man’s priorities. Overall, throughout the poem, the speaker suggests three reasons he is considering leaving: it is light, he does not want to expose their relationship or he has business to attend to. She shows why each reason is invalid. She is fully committed to him and she wants an equivalent commitment from him.
The poem is written in rhymed couplets using iambic feet. Each stanza is six lines long and there are three stanzas. Each line consists of four lines of iambic tetrameter followed by two lines of iambic pentameter. The presence of an additional foot for the closing lines of each stanza slows them down and adds weight to them. As shown above, the arguments, in each of the stanzas, are logically separate. However, they are verbally connected. The image of “light” is in both the first and second stanzas. Stanzas two and three are connected because her “being well” is directly contrasted with his potential condition “the worst disease of love.”
The poem “The Sun Rising” is expressed from the male’s point of view. Initially, the sun is just an intruder, as a person would be. The sun is personified. In the second stanza, it has “eyes.” Clearly, the sun is conscious and is watchful. In the second stanza, he says that his beloved is like every country in the world and he is like every king. In the third stanza, he says that princes simply pretend to have countries compared to what he has. Thus, the speaker’s love affair is so important the kings and princes in the world are copying it, and their bedroom actually contains the entire world. The speaker also says that the sun is only half as happy as he and his lover are. By the final stanza, the universe has been reduced to the man, woman and the sun. It is a metaphysical love poem. Throughout the poem, there is a drawn-out comparison between the sun and a human being who has interrupted Donne and his lover. Each of these assertions describes a feeling. To his lover, the rising sun feels like an intruder. To the speaker, the bedroom seems to contain everything that is important in the world. In the poem, Donne treats each subjective feeling as an objective truth. Throughout the poem, the language implies that what goes on in the speaker’s head easily supersedes the world around it. This joyful confidence reflects the feelings of someone who is happily in love. He says that genuine love does not pay attention to fear, shame or honor. He views love as an unstoppable force. It has power even over nature.
The poem has three stanzas, each consisting of ten lines. Each stanza has the rhyme scheme ABBACDCDEE. The meter shifts throughout the poem. Each stanza consists of the following number of beats per line: 8,4,10,10,8,8,10,10,10, and 10. In order, the 10 lines in each stanza have the following meter: iambic tetrameter, dimeter, pentameter, pentameter, iambic tetrameter, iambic tetrameter, pentameter, pentameter, pentameter and pentameter.
The premises of both poems are the same. Both of the speakers are on the verge of having to leave their respective lovers. Both pieces are melancholy poems. The speaker in “Breake of Day” regrets that the “poor” man, the “foul” man, and the “false” man can admit love into their lives, although the “busied” man cannot. The speaker in “The Sun Rising” claims that love is timeless, as love is something that “no season knows.” Both poems accomplish their linguistic aims. He uses ethereal and notional descriptions, and he contrasts them with carnal love. He describes both physical love and earthly love. Among other comparisons, the speaker in “The Sun Rising” claims to have the world’s riches, such as the “India’s of spice,” in his bed. This phrase could be a reference to the mining operations in the Eastern and Western Indies at the time. The poems are so spiritual and they are also so physical. The passion he expresses in his poems matches the fact that he eloped with his own lover.
While the predicaments of the speakers are the same, their thoughts in that moment are different. The woman focuses on the concrete reasons for the man’s departure, while the man focuses on the great magnitude of his love. In “The Sun Rising,” love is the most important feeling in the world to the speaker. In “The Breake of Dawn,” the speaker lists external, worldly reasons such as “business” that cause her man to leave. In “The Sun Rising,” the speaker boldly claims that the sun is shining “everywhere” by allowing it to finally shine on his bed, thus implying that his bedroom is the entire world. “The Sun Rising” does not identify a specific reason for their separation, while the “Breake of Day” does not describe in detail the speaker’s actual feeling of love, simply leaving it implied without directly stating that her individual feeling of love is strong.
The use of light in the two poems differs greatly. In the “Breake of Dawn, the second stanza has a personification of “light,” which is characterized as being all-seeing, but incapable of speech. The “eye” in the second stanza is the only anatomical feature of the light. Inevitably, the word light is closely associated with its source, the sun. Thus, the “eye” stanza serves as a metaphor for the sun. This powerful light could destroy their love, honor and reputation. In the poem, the words love and darkness are actually used together positively because love and darkness brought the couple together. The speaker argues that they did not originally lie down because of the darkness, so they should not respond mechanically to light. Love urged them into the bed, so it should motivate them to stay there. On the other hand, the light is negative because it brings the lovers apart. The title of the poem itself suggests both the physical morning, heralded by the coming of light, and the possible separation of the lovers. Light is an evil force in the poem. In “The Sun Rising,” the sun is personified. In the first stanza, he angrily calls the sun “unruly” and a “busy old fool.” His displeasure is emphasized by the trochee that begins this line. In the second stanza, he expresses that his love for his beloved is so deep that even though he could “eclipse” the sun by closing his eyes, he does not want to lose sight of her for even one instant. Clearly, the speaker is aware of light from the sun since he views it as something that he must hide from by closing his eyes. He even suggests in the second stanza that his lover’s eyes could have blinded the sun’s eyes. The speaker is speaking to the sun. He is soon forced to accept the presence of the rising sun. He wants it to linger, thereby allowing them stay in bed forever. Instead of being only a negative force, light has a voyeuristic role as well in this poem. In fact, by the end of the poem, the speaker invites the sun to shine upon him. The last line, reading “This bed thy center is,” could be a reference to the historical idea that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that the Sun rotated around the earth.
In the two poems, the speakers talk about honor differently. In “Breake of Day,” the speaker describes in the second stanza how her “honor” is at risk to be with him. She tries to shame the man into staying by saying that she would not leave her own heart and honor that she has placed in him by going. Keeping faith to our own truth is a higher honor than reputation. In “The Sun Rising,” honor and wealth have become meaningless, since princes seem poor when compared to what the speaker has. All the beautiful aspects of the world lie in his lover. He knows that, in the morning, “late school boys” and “court huntsmen” are starting their work, but he wants to escape the responsibilities and restrictions of the outside world. The outside world is bound by time and season, but he and his lover are not. He ignores politics, when he uses chiasmus as syntax structure, by saying “She’s all states, all princes I.” The difference between t he speakers in the two poems could be a result of societal gender expectations. Historically, having a relationship outside of marriage could be more harmful to a woman’s reputation than to a man’s reputation. For this reason, the woman directly acknowledges and argues against the potential loss of reputation that could be brought on from light, while the man is much more quick to directly choose his lover over the typical responsibilities brought on by light, eventually inviting light to look upon them both.
The situations that the speakers find themselves in, for both poems, are very similar. However, their resulting reactions are very different. In the “Breake of Dawn,” the speaker uses reason to implore her lover to stay. Light is a negative force and the loss of honor is a risk that the speaker uses logic to argue against. In “The Sun Rising,” the speaker focuses directly on the strength of his feeling. Light is initially unwanted, but it soon becomes a witness to their love and the speaker is less reluctant to choose his lover over societal expectations. The focus of their thoughts, in response to their similar predicaments, are unique.