# CXIII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

The poet describes how, since parting from the beloved, his physical sight has become subservient to his inner vision. His eye no longer perceives the world objectively; every sight, whether beautiful or ugly, is transformed into an image of the beloved. The mind, so full of the beloved, renders the eye's reports untrue.

## Themes in this chapter

### Truth and Deception

The eye's perception is deemed 'untrue' because it is distorted by the mind's obsession with the beloved, blurring the line between objective reality and subjective idealization.

### Love and Desire

The beloved so completely occupies the poet's mind that all external forms are reshaped into the beloved's image, demonstrating the all-consuming nature of desire.

## Character check-ins

### William Shakespeare

The speaker of the sonnet, reflecting on the power of inner vision over physical sight.

## Key lines

> Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; And that which governs me to go about Doth part his function and is partly blind, Seems seeing, but effectually is out;

Since I parted from you, my physical eye has become absorbed into my inner mind; the eye that normally guides my movements has split its role and is now half-blind—it appears to see, but in reality it sees nothing.

_The poet describes the dissociation between physical sight and mental vision after separation._

> For if it see the rudest or gentlest sight, The most sweet favour or deformed’st creature, The mountain or the sea, the day or night, The crow or dove, it shapes them to your feature:

For whatever it sees—whether the coarsest or most refined sight, the most beautiful face or the most deformed creature, the mountain or the sea, day or night, the crow or the dove—it molds everything into your likeness.

_Every perception, no matter how varied, is transformed into the image of the beloved._

> Incapable of more, replete with you, My most true mind thus makes mine untrue.

My mind, unable to hold anything else because it is so full of you, makes my eye's reports false.

_The mind's fidelity to the beloved causes the eye to betray objective truth._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters/cxiii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters