English History

  • Poets
    • Byron
      • Letters
      • Poems
    • Keats
      • Letters
      • Poetry
    • Shakespeare
      • Poetry
      • Plays
    • Tennyson
  • Middle Ages
  • Vikings
  • Romans
  • Kings and Queens
    • Stuarts
    • Tudor
  • About
    • History of English Art
    • Privacy & Cookie Policy
    • Contact
    • The Right to Display Public Domain Images
    • Author & Reference Information For Students

Sonnet 28

How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day’s oppression is not eas’d 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 him 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 length seem stronger.

Continue reading: See the complete list of Shakespeare’s sonnets on English History with opening lines and themes.

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Sonnet 28" https://englishhistory.net/shakespeare/sonnets/sonnet-28/, March 4, 2022

You are here: Home » Shakespeare » Sonnets » Sonnet 28

Search English History

Learn About Shakespeare

  • William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare Biography
  • Shakespeare Plays
  • Shakespeare Sonnets
  • Shakespeare Quotes
  • Elizabethan Theatre
  • Queen Elizabeth I

Popular Posts

Sonnet 8
Sonnet 41
Sonnet 19
Sonnet 31
Sonnet 9
Sonnet 42
Sonnet 20
Sonnet 32
Sonnet 10
Sonnet 43

The Tudors

Lord Byron

John Keats

shakespeare

Copyright © 1999-2026 All Rights Reserved.
English History