Union Jack

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Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love

Sonnet 28

The Shakespeare we meet at the start of the film, Shakespeare in Love, has a bad case of writer's block - one that can be overcome only by having someone to love.

How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarre'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,Francisco Goya's The Sleep
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.
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