By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
We left Shakespeare, at the end of Sonnet 27, lamenting the fact that thoughts of the Fair Youth keep him awake at night; now, in Sonnet 28, he continues this thread, bemoaning the fact that his nights and his days are ruined thanks to his love for the young man. ‘How can I then return in happy plight, / That am debarred the benefit of rest?’ In other words, if I can’t get some rest at night and recharge my batteries, how am I going to be able to function during the day? Below is a short summary and analysis of 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 oppressed,
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.