Sonnet 148

Love distorts sight itself: the speaker cannot see truly because love blinds him with tears, making him perceive the beloved as fair when she is foul.

Original

Modern

1 O me! what eyes hath love put in my head,

O me, what eyes hath love put in my head,

2 Which have no correspondence with true sight,

Which have no correspondence with true sight;

3 Or if they have, where is my judgement fled,

Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,

4 That censures falsely what they see aright?

That censures falsely what they see aright?

5 If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,

If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,

6 What means the world to say it is not so?

Then is it true that I do faintly blot,

7 If it be not, then love doth well denote,

A baser thing so to devote my sight,

8 Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: no,

And all my honest faith in false attire;

Volta The volta shifts from questioning ('what eyes,' 'where is judgement') to accepting the condition. He cannot blame himself; love is the active agent of his blindness.

9 How can it? O how can love’s eye be true,

But 'tis not so; I never did see it so,

10 That is so vexed with watching and with tears?

In sooth, by sight I never was deceived;

11 No marvel then though I mistake my view,

It is my mind that hath suborn'd my sight;

12 The sun it self sees not, till heaven clears.

And to the false my false heart still agrees.

13 O cunning love, with tears thou keep’st me blind,

personification: 'cunning love'

For if I see not, yet do I believe,

14 Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

That thou art all that all my soul can hold.

Epistemology of Love

This sonnet concerns how love corrupts knowledge itself. It asks: Can a lover ever see truly? The couplet suggests love is not passive delusion but active manipulation—'O cunning love . . . thou keep'st me blind.' Love is a deceiver that strategically prevents accurate perception. This is profoundly skeptical about love's relationship to truth.

Eyes, Sun, and Tears

The sun image (line 12) is daring: even the sun cannot see clearly until clouds clear. The speaker's tears work like clouds, obscuring vision. Love-tears are not purifying or noble but obstructing—they are tools of blindness. This reverses the Romantic association of tears with genuine feeling; here, tears are the mechanism of self-deception.

If this happened today

Like the phenomenon where we cannot see someone's flaws when we're emotionally attached to them. Our phones appear to auto-correct in favor of the beloved—we see only their best version, and when friends point out red flags, we dismiss them.

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