SONNET - 46 SUMMARY

 Sonnet No 46:

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part:
As thus: mine eye's due is thine outward part,
And my heart's right, thine inward love of heart.

  This sonnet is one of the Fair Youth sequences, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. The poet says that his eye and my heart have gone to war with each other. They're fighting over who gets to control the youth's image. The poet's eye wants to bar his heart from the image that it formed, while his heart wants to keep his eye away from its image. His heart insists that the youth's image lies safely hidden inside of him, protected from eyes, which give everything away. But his eye, the defendant, denies the charges and argues that the youth's beauty resides in him. To decide whose claim is right, the poet has assembled a jury consisting of his thoughts, all of which owe allegiance to the heart. And they have delivered a verdict to determine which portion of the youth's image belongs to the eyes and which precious portion to the heart. This is what they say: "My eyes have the rights to your outward appearance, and m heart has the right to love you and be loved by you".