Sonnet 28's first quatrain begins questioning how the poet can return to the young man in a happy plight. The concern is that at night he is prevented from resting, and by day he is oppressed by toil. The "toil" is the toil of travel, and the description of travel in the previous sonnet (Sonnet 27) is the journey that takes place in a poet's imagination. So, the word "toil" appears to be referring to the poet's work: the search for words and metaphors to describe his fair young friend.