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William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: How can I then return in happy plight
Sonnet 28


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

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Shakespeare's Sonnets: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
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Shakespeare's Sonnets: When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

Notes

5] either's] ethers Q.

10] heav'n] heauen Q.

11] swart-complexion'd] black-faced.

12] twire] peep, twinkle (first used by Shakespeare here, and of obscure etymology). guil'st] frequently emended to "gild" ("makes golden"), but the beloved might indeed, by his brightness, beguile or deceive the nighttime heavens when the sky is overcast (and no stars twinkle). Shakespeare's expression is unusual but not necessarily erroneous.

13] Lines 13-14 are both extrametrical.


Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): c2v.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/22

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg


Other poems by William Shakespeare