Page:Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale.djvu/24

14 

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tir'd;

But then begins a journey in my head

To work my mind, when body's work's expir'd:

For then my thoughts—from far where I abide—

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

Looking on darkness which the blind do see:

Save that my soul's imaginary sight

Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.

 

How can I then return in happy plight,

That am debarr'd 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 further 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 strength seem stronger.

 6 Intend: plan, set about

9 imaginary: imaginative  6 shake hands: conspire

12 twire: peep, twinkle