Summary

The poem begins with the speaker chiding the rising sun from his bedroom. He asks why the sun must interrupt him and his beloved, arguing that lovers should be exempt from the sun's schedule. He encourages the sun to go bother "Late school boys and sour prentices" (6), or to inform the king's hunting party that he is ready, or to announce to farmers that it is time to begin the harvest. He says that love does not subscribe to the calendar of days, months, and years, and that love is eternal.

In the second stanza, the speaker disparages the sun's brightness, saying that he could darken the sun's raise just by closing his eyes. He refuses to do this, though, because then he would not be able to look at his beloved. He asks that the sun, if the beloved's eyes have not blinded...