The Sun Rising

John Donne

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Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

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Why dost thou thus,

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Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?

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Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

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Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

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Late schoolboys and sour 'prentices,

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Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,

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Call country ants to harvest offices;

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Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

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Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

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Thy beams so reverend and strong

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Why shouldst thou think?

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I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,

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But that I would not lose her sight so long;

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If her eyes have not blinded thine,

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Look, and to-morrow late tell me,

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Whether both the Indias of spice and mine

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Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.

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Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,

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And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.

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She is all states, and all princes, I,

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Nothing else is.

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Princes do but play us; compared to this,

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All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.

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Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,

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In that the world's contracted thus;

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Thy beams, so reverend and strong

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Why shouldst thou think?

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I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,

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But that I would not lose her sight so long;

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That I may in this bed teach hearts to find

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And see that, by me, all thy motions are,

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And all thy duties mine; O, all men use thee,

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But through me they be not used.

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Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

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This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.

    The Sun Rising — John Donne · Read in original English | Lectio · Lectio