Wednesday, August 18, 2010

John Donne's "Break of Day" Analysis

I'm currently in my poetry unit for my AP Lit class and my teacher informed all of us on the first day of school that each and everyone of us would have an "Oh my god that poem blew my mind!" moment. Only 4 days into the school year and I've already had one. The poem was Break if Day by John Donne. After reading it more than 20 times in half an hour, I can honestly say it's one of my all time favorites. Every time you read it you get more out of it. If you have not read it, here it is:

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 ;
If it could speak as well as spy,
This were the worst that it could say,
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.

Must business thee from hence remove?
O ! that's the worst disease of love,
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.



Despite my love of poetry, I must admit I am awful at analyzing them, but I will say what I enjoy about this one in particular.  


It's a scene that's both romantic and slightly funny, at least to me. A couple wakes up in bed and it's morning, so naturally the man gets up. However, the women attempts to pursued her lover to stay in bed with her. With each stanza, the women tries to persuade the man with different excuses. 


She starts with unimportance of daily routine. "Did you go to bed because it was night or because you loved me? Well you should stay in bed now that it's day...because you love me." She is therefore putting love above  daily routines. I find this funny because in actuality, she has a valid point, and what I mean by valid is there's no way he can leave or else she'll assume last night was just "a good time." Well played mistress.


She then comes at him stating not too be scared of letting the light see you, for all it does is see, and even if it were to speak, it wouldn't be bad. This statement must have been triggered by the man's event, either he continues to dress or he said he doesn't want anyone to see them. The woman responds with this stanza about not fearing being seen, which implies that they are not married and it's possibly an affair. This can be seen as the woman putting love above morality, as in she doesn't care about their affair being exposed as long as they're together and in love.


The last stanza is the woman's last desperate attempt to get him to stay. It can be inferred that the man has now played the "I gotta go to work" card and the woman is not happy about it. She can't believe he'd rather go to work than be with her. Poor, foul and false people can love, but not businessmen such as himself, because they will always put work before love. She ends the stanza by saying businessmen who make love are worse, morally speaking, than men who cheat on their spouses. This is yet another implication that the man she is with is married and yet again the message in the stanza is that love is above business/work. 


I find this poem entertaining because this is exactly how things would play out in real life. The man would try to slip out after a "fun night" and the woman, enthralled with love, just wants to lay there with him and share her happiness...which of course the man's like, no. I also find the different attempts on her part interesting, how she came up with a different angle every stanza and then, in her last attempt, she gets desperate and aims to hurt (LIKE EVERY WOMAN!). If the man is in fact married, the last stanza could be seen as taking a stab at him by making him feel guilty about cheating and saying that he's committing a sin even worse than that by leaving her for work (Which is funny because naturally it wouldn't be worse, but from her perspective it is. Sigh*. Women are so funny) The entire poem is written in rhyme, yet at the point where she get's desperate to keep him there, she exclaims "O" and breaks rhyme. (Remove + Love = no rhyme) 


Anyway, I love this poem. It's filled with romantic persuasions, the idea to not bend at light's will and to stay in bed, and realistic reactions, the woman getting upset and aiming to hurt when she's desperate. I also found it similar to Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene V) when the couple wakes up after their night together and Juliet attempts to keep  Romeo in bed. She says it's still night and that the lark he hears is a nightingale and the sun's light is just a comet in the sky. The silly things women do for affection eh?
 

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