What does Shakespeare's sonnet 43 mean?

Answer 1

Here is the Sonnet, followed by a modern-English representation:

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.

And 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 bless-ed 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.

My eyes see best when mostly closed to view,

For in my waking hours they see but dross;

But when I sleep, in dreams they look on you

Dark-brightly through that night they beam across.

And you, whose shadow's cast makes all shades bright,

How splendid would you in your person show

To clear of day with your much clearer light,

When to unsighted eyes your shade shines so!

And oh how blest would be my eyes if laid

Upon your person in the living day,

When in dead night your fair but copy shade,

Engraved on sleeping eyes, won't go away!

All days are nights until it's you I see,

And nights bright days when dreams show you to me.

The original poem makes play with the words "shadow" and "shade": a device used in several of the Sonnets. This evokes Plato's philosophy that the world experienced by humans is only a reflection of a greater, but not directly perceived, reality. Plato's analogy was of men being confined to a gloomy cave, in which they perceive the events of a wider, real world, outside the cave, only as images cast on to the cave walls.

Following this concept, the real thing is an original or, as in line 6, a "form" (ie something which forms other things) and lesser imitations or perceptions are but shadows or reflections of that reality. The term "shade" continues to evoke this concept in modern English, with its alternative meaning of "ghost" or insubstantiality. So, too, does "shadow", as in "he's but a shadow of his former self".

Lines 3 and 4 of the original reflect the concept, prevalent in Shakespeare's time, that eyes projected a form of light.