Nature
Day-Break
From Poems on Several Occasions (1689)
Stay, Phoebus, stay, and cool thy flaming Head
In the Green bosom of thy liquid Bed:
Betray not, with thine envious Light,
Th' embraces of an happy Night;
For her fair blushes, if thou dar'st to rise,
Will, by Eclipse, hoodwink thy sawcy Eyes.
Lest Lovers do upbraid thy beamy Car,
With the pale glory or th'inferiour Star,
And henceforth dare to say, in scorn,
Sol's Ray is wain'd to Phaebe's horn,
And, for his Treason to a Lovers bliss,
Suffers Actaeons Metamorphosis.
Why should we rise t'adore the rising Sun,
And leave the Rites to greater Lights undone?
Or quit her warm, and spicy nest,
Because the Morn peeps through the East,
To scortch in thy rude flames, to toyl, and sweat,
When in Loves fire we melt without thy heat?
When from my passionate Embraces she
Springs, as asham'd to be surpriz'd by thee,
The pillows surrow'd brows descry
A wrath for thy discovery,
Swell, and wax pale at thy insulting height,
For rage to be depriv'd of her dear weight.
Then stay, or lash thy Pamper'd Horses still,
To shew a swift obedience to her Will,
And blushing, bow as low as Night,
Lest I pursue thee, by thy Light,
And lock the Morning-Doors to stop thy Race,
Imprisoning so in Clouds thy tell-tale Face.
Cite this poem
MLA
Cotton, Charles. “Day-Break.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cotton/99/.
Chicago
Cotton, Charles. “Day-Break.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cotton/99/.
Read this poem with the Codex →