Sonnet 43

Song Meaning

The speaker finds their waking hours dim and unfulfilling, claiming their eyes only truly "see" when they are closed and dreaming. It's in these nocturnal visions that their beloved appears, transforming darkness into a kind of "darkly bright" clarity. This suggests a profound disconnect between the mundane reality of the day and the vivid, illuminated world experienced in sleep. The central tension lies in this inversion of perception: the physical act of seeing is presented as a limitation, while the absence of sight, through sleep and dreams, becomes the conduit for true vision and emotional fulfillment. The beloved's presence is so potent that even their "shadow" can illuminate the darkness, raising the question of how much more radiant they would be in the "clear day" with their full "light." The most striking craft element is the persistent play on light and dark, sight and blindness, and the paradoxical "darkly bright" state. The lyrics repeatedly contrast the "day" with "night," "view things unrespected" with "look on thee," and "unseeing eyes" with the beloved's "shade shines so." This linguistic dance highlights how the beloved's image is so powerful it redefines the speaker's sensory experience. These lyrics resonate because they articulate a deep yearning for a reality that surpasses the ordinary. The speaker's world is literally made brighter and more meaningful by the imagined or remembered presence of their beloved, even when that presence is only a dream or a shadow. The writing crafts a powerful emotional landscape where the internal vision, fueled by love, is more real and vital than external perception.