The Sun Rising

The Sun Rising is John Donne's lyric in which a lover addresses the morning sun as an unwelcome intruder. The speaker first disputes its authority, then draws the wider world of rulers, commerce, and seasons into the scale of the lovers' room. Exaggeration gives the poem its playful force: private affection is made to compete with the measures by which public life assigns importance. Changing lengths of line and confident turns of argument make the address both intimate and theatrical.