William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43 is part of the celebrated collection of 154 sonnets, most of which are addressed to a mysterious “Fair Youth,” a young man of great beauty and virtue. This sonnet belongs to the so-called “Fair Youth” sequence (Sonnets 1–126), and is emblematic of the poet’s intricate meditations on love, absence, perception, and longing. In Sonnet 43, Shakespeare uses paradox and metaphor to explore how the beloved’s absence renders the day dark and lifeless, while dreams at night restore the lover’s image and animate the speaker’s inner world. The poem presents a psychological inversion: night becomes more vivid than day, dreams more real than waking hours. Through this structure, Shakespeare delves into the theme of idealized love and the sustaining power of imagination.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
Structure and Tone of Sonnet 43
Sonnet 43 adheres to the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains followed by a concluding rhymed couplet, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This form allows for a logical development of thought: each quatrain deepens or complicates the speaker’s argument, leading to a concise, poignant conclusion in the final couplet.
The tone of the sonnet is one of melancholy yearning and paradoxical comfort. The speaker laments the absence of the beloved during the day, yet finds solace in the imaginative power of dreams at night. There is a philosophical stillness in the tone, an introspective calm as the speaker reconciles with the irrational logic that dreams offer more vision than reality.
Poetry Analysis
Lines 1–4:
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Summary: The speaker begins by asserting that he sees best when his eyes are closed—i.e., during sleep. In the light of day, his eyes encounter nothing worthwhile (“unrespected”); only in dreams at night do they behold the beloved’s image. The paradox “darkly bright” underscores the inversion of day and night, of sleep and vision.
Analysis: These lines play on oxymorons and paradoxes. The idea that one sees best when asleep suggests a poetic truth: the imagination, unshackled from the physical world, can more vividly apprehend love. The punning on “darkly bright” and “bright in dark directed” is a classic Shakespearean move—employing verbal ambiguity to express the contradictions of love and perception. The language elevates dreams to a quasi-spiritual plane, where even the darkness is illuminated by the beloved’s imagined form.
Lines 5–8:
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
Summary: If the mere shadow (i.e., dream-image) of the beloved can make darkness radiant, how much more beautiful and enlightening would his real presence be in the light of day?
Analysis: This quatrain expands the contrast between dream and reality. Shakespeare plays with polysemy: “shadow” refers to both the dream-image and the physical absence of the beloved, while “form” suggests both shape and essence. The repetition of “shadow,” “form,” and “clearer light” builds a crescendo of intensity, emphasizing how impoverished reality feels without the beloved. There’s a Platonic undertone here—the real presence is like the Form of Beauty, which makes the mere shadow of it seem transcendent in dreams.
Lines 9–12:
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
Summary: The poet insists again: if the beloved’s shade brings such joy during “dead night,” how much more joy would his real, living presence bring in waking life?
Analysis: This stanza continues the metaphysical logic from the previous quatrain but with heightened emotional urgency. The phrase “living day” contrasts with “dead night,” emphasizing the lifelessness of daytime without the beloved. Even through “sightless eyes” (closed in sleep), the dream image leaves a deep emotional impression. The speaker suggests that dreams, while imperfect, serve as a spiritual bridge to the absent beloved. The line “thy fair imperfect shade” hints at both the beauty and the insufficiency of dreams.
Lines 13–14 (Couplet):
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
Summary: The poem concludes with a philosophical epigram: day and night lose their usual meaning. Day is as dark as night until the beloved is seen; only at night, in dreams, does the world regain its light and joy.
Analysis: This rhymed couplet masterfully ties the sonnet’s central paradox into a final, memorable inversion. The wordplay—“nights to see,” “nights bright days”—relies on rhetorical reversal, where emotional truth overrides physical reality. The beloved’s presence is the sole criterion by which time is measured. In this way, the speaker elevates love to the cosmic scale—it transforms not only perception but also the very nature of light and dark, waking and dreaming.
Conclusion
In Sonnet 43, Shakespeare turns the absence of the beloved into a meditation on the powers of perception, dream, and love. The poet’s use of paradox, imagery, and logical progression leads the reader through a poetic inversion of night and day, culminating in the idea that emotional truth—not physical presence—defines the quality of experience. Through its structure, tone, and philosophical undertones, the sonnet reveals the profound reach of love into both conscious and unconscious realms. Shakespeare thus affirms that in the dream-lit world of love, absence becomes presence, and darkness becomes a site of inner illumination.
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Shakespeare’s Sonnet 42: Full Analysis