Sonnet XXIV
Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d,Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart;My body is the frame wherein ’tis held,And perspective it is best painter’s art.For through the painter must you see his skill,To find where your true image pictur’d lies,Which in my bosom’s shop is hanging still,That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done:Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for meAre windows to my breast, where-through the sunDelights to peep, to gaze therein on thee;Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art,They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
Words in this poem
- perspective a.
- Of or pertaining to the science of vision; optical. [L. perspicere, perspectum, to look through; per + spicere, specere, to look: cf. F. perspectif; or from E. perspective, n. See Spy, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XXIV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXIV, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-24.html, id L00042.
Form and metre
Sonnet XXIV is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG stell'dA · heartB · heldA · artB · skillC · liesD · stillC · eyesD · doneE · meF · sunE · theeF · artG · heartG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| My body is the frame wherein ’tis held, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And perspective it is best painter’s art. | 10 | ·˘/˘···/˘· |
| For through the painter must you see his skill, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To find where your true image pictur’d lies, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Which in my bosom’s shop is hanging still, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes. | 10 | ···/˘·˘··· |
| Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done: | 10 | ·········· |
| Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me | 10 | ·········· |
| Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| They draw but what they see, know not the heart. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 3
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 2 Table. The tablet or surface on which a picture is painted. Cf. A. IV. i. 1. 106 and A'. John, ii. 1. 503.
- Line 3 The frame. That is, of the picture.
- Line 4 Perspective. The word in S. means elsewhere either a kind of picture which was so painted as to be distinct only when viewed obliquely, or a kind of glass employed to produce optical illusions. Cf. Rich. II. ii. 2. 18, A. W. v. 3. 48, and T. N. v. 1. 224. Here the meaning seems to be that the poet's eye {the painter) is that through which the person addressed must look to see his image, or yicture, hanging in the bosom's shop, or heart, within. The accent of perspective in S. is always on the tirst syllable. Dowden remarks: "The strange conceits in this sonnet are par- alleled in Constable's Diana (1594), Sonn. 5 (p. 4, ed. Hazlitt) : — 1 Thine eye, the glasse where I behold my heart, Mine eye, the window through the which thine eye May see my heart, and there thyselfe espy In bloody colours how thou painted art.' Compare also Watson's Teares of Fancie (1593), Sonn. 45, 46 (ed. Arber, p. 201) : — ' My Mistres seeing her faire counterfet So sweetelie framed in my bleeding brest But it so fast was fixed to my heart,' " etc. II. Where through. Cf. wkere-against in Cor. iv. 5. 1 13, where- out in T. and C. iv. 5. 245, where-until in L. L. L. v. 2. 493, etc. 13. Cunning. Art, skill ; as very often.
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