The Sun Rising... John Donne...
         Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
         Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must thy motions lovers' seasons run?
         Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
         Late school boys, and sour prentices,
   Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride,
   Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no seasons 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 left'st 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 honor'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 center is, these walls, thy sphere.

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this site owned and maintained by James Dempsey...
Live the Dream... The Sun Rising...
last updated on 2/15/99...
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