The Sun

The sun symbolizes the order of the world as it is experienced through space and time. The speaker is frustrated that the rising sun dictates the work day, and he argues that lovers should be exempt from this order. Instead, the speaker criticizes the sun and claims it has no power over the lovers, who ultimately control its movements.

School boys, huntsmen, and farmers

The "late school boys," "court huntsmen," and "country ants" (6-8) to whom the speaker refers in the first stanza symbolize regular people who must obey the order of the universe. The speaker encourages the sun to spend its time alerting these people to the beginning of the day rather than himself and his beloved. Here, the speaker suggests that while most of the people in the world must follow the laws of time and space, he and his lover are free...