Sonnet 132

The poet praises his mistress's black eyes as surpassingly beautiful—they become her as mourning clothes suit the dawn, and he wishes her heart would mourn his suffering as much as her eyes suggest.

Original

Modern

1 Thine eyes I love, and they as pitying me,

Eyes I love

Thine eyes I love, and they for my sake,

2 Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,

Even those that seem most black do shine most bright.

3 Have put on black, and loving mourners be,

Beauty a sovereign good in every take,

4 Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.

Is but the shadow of thy face in light.

5 And truly not the morning sun of heaven

In thy black bosom all my colors mix'd;

6 Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,

Which in the day by living heat are bred;

7 Nor that full star that ushers in the even

And by a part of all that makes me white,

8 Doth half that glory to the sober west

Lost in thy black, when all my white is dead.

Volta The volta moves from praising how well black mourning eyes suit her face to requesting that her heart match her eyes—that cruelty be transformed into compassion.

9 As those two mourning eyes become thy face:

Mourning eyes beauty

Therefore I never will be loath to pay,

10 O let it then as well beseem thy heart

What ever for thy sake I spend or spend,

11 To mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace,

For thou art cruel, yet thou art not base;

12 And suit thy pity like in every part.

By that which maketh all thy beauty best,

13 Then will I swear beauty herself is black,

Were I immortal, yet should I fear time,

14 And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

If after thy dark eyes my love should die.

Beauty as Correspondence to Mood

The sonnet argues that the Dark Lady's black eyes 'suit' her perfectly—they are becoming not despite their darkness but because they express mourning. This is a radically modern aesthetic: beauty consists in authenticity of feeling, not in conformity to an ideal. Her eyes are beautiful because they truthfully register her emotional state. This contrasts with the artificial beauty of cosmetics attacked in Sonnet 127.

The Transformative Power of Sympathy

The poem's request is subtle: let your heart mourn for me as your eyes suggest you understand pain. The poet is asking the Dark Lady to extend her apparent empathy into action. The beauty of her mournful eyes is incomplete unless it motivates compassion. This reveals the sonnet's actual negotiation: admiring her even as asking her to feel differently, to care for him. The poem flatters and petitions simultaneously.

If this happened today

Like finding someone's vulnerability and slight sadness more attractive than confidence. The poem romanticizes melancholy: her eyes suggest she understands pain (even if she causes his), and that understanding is more beautiful than any smile. It's the appeal of shared emotional damage.

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