Sonnet 47: Betwixt Mine Eye and Heart a League Is Took
Sonnet 47: Betwixt Mine Eye and Heart a League Is Took - meaning Summary
Presence Through Imagined Sight
The poem describes how the speaker’s eye and heart work together to maintain the beloved’s presence despite physical absence. The eye supplies a pictorial feast when longing grows, and the heart reciprocates by sharing love in thought. A painted image or remembered thought makes the beloved effectively 'present,' and even when conscious thought wanes, that picture revives both heart and sight to renew delight.
Read Complete AnalysesBetwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, And each doth good turns now unto the other, When that mine eye is famished for a look, Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother, With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast And to the painted banquet bids my heart; Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest, And in his thoughts of love doth share a part. So, either by thy picture or my love, Thyself, away, art present still with me; For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move, And I am still with them, and they with thee; Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight Awakes my heart to heart’s and eye’s delight.
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