Sonnet 28

Praise and Beauty

1 How can I then return in happy plight,
2 That am debarre'd the benefit of rest?
3 When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
4 But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
5 And each, though enemies to either's reign,
6 Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
7 The one by toil, the other to complain
8 How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
9 I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
10 And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
11 So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
12 When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.
13 But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
14 And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger.