Sonnet 43

In the collection, “Sonnet 43” directly follows Sonnets 40-42, which explore the betrayal of The Fair Youth, who has become involved with the speaker’s mistress. Often considered a love poem, “Sonnet 43” resonates more as a discussion of both the speaker’s desire for, and repulsion from, the man who has betrayed the speaker. The Fair Youth (presented as the beloved “thee” [Line 3] in the sonnet) is both referenced as a real person—with whom the speaker was physically engaged—as well as an emotional concept of love and/or passion. The beloved is portrayed as a bright entity that both illuminates and eradicates the speaker’s world. By dreaming, the speaker keeps the beloved in their life and yet, simultaneously, allows the beloved to obliterate their life.

As the poem begins, the speaker asserts that “when most I wink, then do mine eyes best see” (Line 1). They insist that when they “wink” (Line 1)—meaning sleep—they are visited by particular visions of the beloved that are the “best” (Line 1). This description suggests that what they dream or imagine is either the most pleasing viewpoint or the most clear and truthful version of the relationship. Scholar Helen Vendler has pointed out that the poem’s phrasing moves from highlighting “supercompetent eyes that best see, that look on the object; to unseeing eyes passively illuminated by a shade that shines; to sightless eyes on which rests an imperfect shade” (Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1997). In other words, the speaker’s passion for The Fair Youth both explains their love and makes them blind to it.

During the daytime, the speaker notes how they “view things unrespected” (Line 2). This suggests they are unmoved by day-to-day existence that is filled with that which they do not value. This indicates that the speaker is in a depressed state, and dissociating from the present, unable to find comfort or regard for what they retain in their life. This is assumed to be caused by the betrayal that has culminated in the couple’s parting, which is mentioned in the sonnets that precede “Sonnet 43.”

The speaker’s depressed outlook on the living world is then contrasted to their vivid dreamworld. In it, they are still able to “look on [The Fair Youth]” (Line 3) and engage with him. This idealized remembrance of the beloved takes up the speaker’s mind until the image is “bright in dark directed” (Line 4)—or omnipresent. The speaker expresses how the beloved’s “shadow” (Line 5) is bright enough to make the dark night’s “shadows […] bright,” (Line 5). This suggests that the memory of the lover eclipses not only the nighttime’s gloom but also the speaker’s depression. In the speaker’s dream world, The Fair Youth’s beauty “shines so” (Line 8) that even the “clear day” (Line 7) is overwhelmed by his “clearer light” (Line 7). The speaker is initially revived in the warm glow.

Yet, what starts as a positive illumination offers obliteration. The speaker’s vision of the beloved, which isn’t a realistic portrait of him in life, begins to eradicate everything else. They cannot think of anyone or anything else, obsessing over the light they have lost. Addicted to the memory of The Fair Youth’s brightness, they long only to be asleep so they may return to it. This, however, is a false construct of the relationship, made clear when the speaker questions whether they would “be blessed made / by looking on thee in the living day” (Lines 9-10). The thought of actually meeting their lover is tinged with doubt. The dream vision is preferred because instead of being fickle, the “fair imperfect shade” (Line 11) will “stay” (Line 12) with the speaker. However this description also contains a recognition of The Fair Youth’s “imperfect[ion]” (Line 11). Even in the dream vision’s self-deception, the speaker subliminally recognizes and rejects his infidelity, calling him “imperfect” (Line 11).

Still, the speaker prefers the vision given by their “heavy sleep” (Line 12) since their “nights [become] bright days” (Line 14). Unable to fully face reality that the relationship is now irrevocably broken, they’ve become obsessed with the fantasy of a reunion with the beloved. The speaker ends with a couplet noting how they have abdicated reality for sustained fantasy: “All days are nights to see till I see thee, / And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me” (Lines 13-14). While “Sonnet 43” speaks of love, it’s main focus is the struggle of losing an important relationship. It speaks to the grief that follows betrayal, and the self-soothing methods one uses to deny the loss of love.