Sonnet Cxlviii Poem by William Shakespeare
Sonnet Cxlviii
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's 'No.'
How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vex'd with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
There are probably hidden threads of reference in this group of poems which now can no longer be uncovered. The foulness with which he manages to end each of the four sonnets (blackness, foulness, defect, unworthiness) probably refers to her perceived unfaithfulness, but may also have implications of sexual voracity and/or disease, the French malady as it was called, a name which covered various sexually transmitted diseases, but more often referred to syphilis and its devastating effects. The sonnet may also be read as if it were part of a sequence complaining of a beloved mistress's disdain, but given the content of some of the surrounding sonnets, (e.g.142,151,152) it seems more probable that there are other hidden and more sinister meanings. www shakespeares-sonnets.com
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4/25/2024 8:43:29 AM # 1.0.0.1119
A somewhat disturbing sonnet which forms one of the group of four (147-50) in which the poet sees his love as a sort of raging fever, a madness in his blood, and he endeavours to come to terms with his own perplexity.