Paradox
The night, though consistently falling, Has no record of breaking at all, But the day, which forever is breaking, Has never as yet had a fall.
De Von Grady Hough
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
The night, though consistently falling, Has no record of breaking at all, But the day, which forever is breaking, Has never as yet had a fall.
Four short lines, and the whole thing runs on a pun. We say night "falls" and day "breaks," and "Paradox" takes those everyday phrases literally. If night keeps falling, shouldn't it have shattered by now? And if day is always breaking, shouldn't it have taken a tumble at some point? Neither has happened, and that is the joke.
The speaker sounds amused rather than troubled. There's a tone of mock seriousness, as if a puzzle has been spotted that nobody else bothered to notice, and the neat rhyme and tidy balance of the stanza add to the straight-faced silliness. The night and the day also swap roles in a pleasing way: one falls without breaking, the other breaks without falling.
Under the wordplay, there's a small observation about how language works. Familiar sayings hide odd pictures, and once you look at them closely, they stop making sense. The mood is light, playful, and a little wry.