406How can I then return in happy plight

407That am debarred the benefit of rest?

408When day's oppression is not eased by night,

409But day by night and night by day oppressed,

410And each, though enemies to either's reign,

411Do in consent shake hands to torture me,

412The one by toil, the other to complain

413How far I toil, still farther off from thee.

414I tell the day, to please him, thou art bright,

415And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven;

416So flatter I the swart-complexioned night,

417When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even;

418 But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,

419 And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger.

421When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

422I all alone beweep my outcast state,

423And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

424And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

425Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

426Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

427Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

428With what I most enjoy contented least;

429Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

430Haply I think on thee, and then my state137--

431Like to the lark at break of day arising

432From sullen earth--sings hymns at heaven's gate;

433 For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

434 That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

436When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

437I summon up remembrance of things past,

438I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

439And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste;

440Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,

441For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

442And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,

443And moan th'expense of many a vanished sight.

444Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

445And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

446The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,

447Which I new pay as if not paid before;

448 But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

449 All losses are restored, and sorrows end.