Sonnet 28

How can I then returne in happy plight

That am debard the benifit of rest?

When daies oppression is not eazd by night,

But day by night and night by day oprest.

And each (though enimes to ethers raigne)

Doe in consent shake hands to torture me,

The one by toyle, the other to complaine

How far I toyle, still further off from thee.

I tell the Day to please him thou art bright,

And dost him grace when clouds doe blot the heaven:

So flatter I the swart complexiond night,

When sparkling stars twire not thou guil'st th'eaven.

But day doth daily draw my sorrowes longer,

And night doth nightly make greefes length seeme stronger.

Commentary

Address to a young man who is far away

In the first two quatrains, the poet sets out his problem, continuing from Sonnet 27, that he cannot find his equilibrium (happy plight) because he is oppressed both day (by work) and night (by thoughts of his loved one). In fact, day and night are conspiring together to torture him, though they are supposed to be sworn enemies.

In the third quatrain and final couplet, the poet explains that though he tries to flatter both the day and the night, it avails nothing, his sorrows grow longer and his griefs grow stronger.