PoemThe Sun Rising
Author / PoetJohn Donne
TagsLove, Power, Rebellion, Time

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late schoolboys, and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

Thy beams, so reverend and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long:
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and tomorrow late, tell me
Whether both the’Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear: “All here in one bed lay.”

She’is all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compar’d to this,
All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy’as we,
In that the world’s contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.

John Donne
John Donne
22 Jan 1572 - 31 Mar 1631
Region: Western Europe
Period: Renaissance
Movement: Metaphysical Poetry

more poems by John Donne

Poem NameTopic
The RelicFaith, Love, Miracles
Hymn to God, My God, In My SicknessDeath, Music, Resurrection
Go and Catch a Falling StarEnvy, False, Star
A Hymn To God The FatherDeath, Fear, Forgiveness
Death Be Not ProudDeath, Eternity, Fate
The BaitDeceit, Fish, Love
A Valediction: Forbidding MourningAbsence, Love, Soul
Love’s GrowthChange, Growth, Love

all poems by John Donne

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