| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Break of Day | | By John Donne (1572–1631) |
| | | STAY, O sweet, and do not rise; | |
| The light that shines comes from thine eyes; | |
| The day breaks not, it is my heart, | |
| Because that you and I must part. | |
| Stay, or else my joys will die | 5 |
| And perish in this infancy. | |
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(Another of the same)
’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? | 10 |
| Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither, | |
| Should in despite of light keep us together. | |
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| Light hath no tongue, but is all eye; | |
| If it could speak as well as spy. | |
| This were the worst that it could say, | 15 |
| 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. | |
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| Must business thee from hence remove? | |
| O! that’s the worst disease of love, | 20 |
| 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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