[Anglika]

Originally Posted by sympathy

Thanks, Anglika.

1) Can you check my understanding of the second couplet
"The day breaks not: it is my heart,
Because that you and I must part."

The day doesn't break: it is my heart that breaks, because of the fact that you and I must part.

Is that right? Absolutely correct


2)And also, I still don't get the first line. If the narrator is addressing his lover (Stay, O Sweet), why does the narrator tell his lover not to rise? What does "rise" mean?
The sun can rise, but can a person 'rise'? They are in bed together. He wants her to stay there and not get up [rise]


3)One more question: Why are the final two lines indented? I don't know where you found this particular verse, but it is a technique of laying out poetry on a page. It is not necessary to the poem in this case.


Thanks

You might like to read the whole poem: 173. Stay, O Sweet. John Donne. 1909-14. English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray. The Harvard Classics