William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137 is a striking exploration of the dissonance between sight, love, and judgment. In this sonnet, the speaker addresses the seemingly irrational nature of love and how it distorts perception and judgment. Shakespeare deftly combines vivid imagery and a tone of frustration and bewilderment to communicate the tension between idealized love and the reality of human relationships.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes, corrupt by overpartial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes’ falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world’s common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,
And to this false plague are they now transferred.
The Structure and Tone of Sonnet 137
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137 follows the traditional structure of the English sonnet, consisting of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. The sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a final rhymed couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGG, typical of Shakespeare’s sonnet form.
The tone of the poem is one of frustration and confusion. The speaker expresses bewilderment and sorrow over how love has distorted their ability to see the truth, both in themselves and in the object of their affection. There is a sharp contrast between the clarity of vision that the speaker believes they should possess and the blurry, distorted perspective they feel ensnared by. The repeated references to blindness and falsehood reveal the internal conflict the speaker grapples with—trying to reconcile the truth with the distorted reality love has imposed on them.
Analysis of Sonnet 137
Lines 1–4: The Blindness of Love
“Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.”
In the opening lines, the speaker addresses “Love” directly, accusing it of causing blindness. The metaphor of blindness here refers to the speaker’s inability to see things clearly because of love’s influence. The paradox in the second line, “they behold and see not what they see,” underscores the confusion that love causes. The eyes, though physically capable of seeing, are unable to perceive truth accurately. The speaker’s eyes know “what beauty is” and can recognize “where it lies,” yet love causes them to misinterpret what they see, choosing “the worst” instead of “the best.” This suggests that love blinds the speaker to the true nature of their affection, preventing them from appreciating the reality of the object of their love.
Lines 5–8: Eyes and Judgment Are Corrupted
“If eyes, corrupt by overpartial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes’ falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?”
Here, the speaker shifts focus to how love’s distortion extends beyond mere sight and influences judgment. The eyes, “corrupt by overpartial looks,” are accused of being biased or overly subjective. This overzealous perception is compared to a ship anchored in a bay where “all men ride,” suggesting that the eyes, though meant to provide an objective view, are instead anchored in a sea of conflicting emotions and prejudices. The phrase “falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks” suggests that love has created traps—falsehoods—that ensnare the judgment of the heart. These “hooks” tie the heart’s judgment to distorted perceptions, causing emotional confusion. In this sense, love, through its manipulative power, not only corrupts the ability to see clearly but also the capacity to make sound emotional decisions.
Lines 9–12: The Paradox of Heart and Eyes
“Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world’s common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?”
In these lines, the speaker contemplates the paradox that love has created. The heart believes in the “several plot” or unique, personal connection with the beloved, despite knowing that love and relationships are, in reality, a common experience for all (“the wide world’s common place”). The heart thus deceives itself into thinking that their particular relationship is unique, while the speaker is aware that it is not. The eyes also deceive the speaker by failing to see the truth about the beloved’s appearance. The phrase “put fair truth upon so foul a face” suggests that love makes the beloved appear more attractive than they truly are, thus distorting the speaker’s perception. This reveals the tension between what the heart believes and what the eyes can see, emphasizing the unreliability of both in matters of love.
Lines 13–14: Final Reflection on the Falsehood of Love
“In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,
And to this false plague are they now transferred.”
In the final couplet, the speaker acknowledges that both the heart and the eyes, which are typically reliable sources of truth, have erred in their judgments due to love. The phrase “things right true” refers to objective truth, yet love has led the heart and eyes astray. The “false plague” refers to the suffering caused by love’s distortion—both emotionally and perceptually. The speaker now recognizes that they are “transferred” into a state of falsehood, where their judgments, once based on truth, are now tainted by love’s overwhelming influence.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137 eloquently examines the way love warps perception, corrupts judgment, and leads to a distorted reality. Through metaphors of blindness and falsehood, Shakespeare critiques the irrationality of love and its ability to cloud one’s judgment, making the heart and eyes unreliable in their pursuit of truth. The sonnet resonates with anyone who has experienced the frustrations of seeing a loved one or a relationship through rose-colored glasses—where the truth is obscured, and love becomes a “false plague.” Ultimately, the poem reveals the tension between idealized love and the harshness of reality, showing how even the most trusted faculties—sight and judgment—can be deceived under love’s influence.
