Sonnet XLIII
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 showTo the clear day with thy much clearer light,When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed madeBy looking on thee in the living day,When in dead night thy fair imperfect shadeThrough 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.
Words in this poem
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet XLIII 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 XLIII, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-43.html, id L00061.
Form and metre
Sonnet XLIII 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%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 seeA · unrespectedB · theeA · directedB · brightC · showD · lightC · soD · madeE · dayF · shadeE · stayF · theeG · meG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, | 10 | ·········· |
| For all the day they view things unrespected; | 11 | ··········· |
| But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed. | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright, | 10 | ···/·/···· |
| How would thy shadow’s form form happy show | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| To the clear day with thy much clearer light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so! | 9 | ········· |
| How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made | 10 | ········˘· |
| By looking on thee in the living day, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| All days are nights to see till I see thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 5
Notes by William J. Rolfe, Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York, 1905), Internet Archive scan
- Line 1 Wink. Shut my eyes. Cf. 56. 6 and/, and A. 121, etc. See also the noun in Temp. ii. I. 285, W. T. i. 2. 317, etc.
- Line 2 Unrespected. Unnoticed, unregarded ; as in 54. 10 below, the only other instance of the word in S.
- Line 4 And darkly bright, etc. " Become bright, though not seeing, when, though closed, they are directed in the darkness" (Tyler). Cf. Sonn. 27, where the sleepless eyes are described as seeing his friend's image in the darkness of night.
- Line 5 Whose shadow, etc. Whose image makes bright the shadows, or shades, of night.
- Line 11 Thy. The quarto again misprints " their." 13, 14. All days are nights to see, etc. "All days are gloomy to behold," etc. (Steevens). Malone wished to read "nights to me ; " and Lettsom conjectured : — "All days are nights to me till thee I see, And nights bright days when dreams do show me thee." Thee me = thee to me.
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