Poem by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 28. How can I then return in happy plight

How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarr'd the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eased by night,
But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd?


And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me;
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.

I tell the day, to please them thou art bright
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.

But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer
And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger.

1. The Church at Stratford
2. From the Rape of Lucrece
3. How Like A Winter Hath My Absence Been
4. Silvia
5. It Was a Lover and His Lass

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