That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
And to this false plague are they now transferred.
In the first quatrain Shakespeare asks love which is blind how it has blinded him since although he can distinguish beauty perfectly, but he sees what is the "worst" as if it were the "best".
In the second quatrain, he proceeds from this to ask another question and asks why since his eyes have been corrupted by his prejudice visions, love has made hooks of the false vision to catch and hold his heart in the same false judgement as that of his eyes.
In the third quatrain, he questions both his eyes and heart. Firstly, why does his heart think what everyone knows as the worlds' common place is his own particular property? Secondly, what should his eyes, which see this, call a foul face beautiful?
The couplet sums up by saying that both his eyes and heart have erred or gone astray, and transfer themselves from truth to this "false plague" (bad situation).
Shakespeare makes love blind and says that it blinds him. His lady is like a ship which anchored in the bay where men ride. He asks how he was made blind by love. It is the more disastrous in Shakespeare who complains of love that made him see falsely and unable to perceive clearly what happens in the harbor of his heart where his lady is, for he suggests that all men are riding in that harbor.
In this sonnet he reveals that because of his conscience his "falseness has indeed become plague." Now, shame covers his heart, he has gone a straight and arrived at self-condemnation and because of his falseness his conscience has become indeed a plague (pestilence).
From the first sentence he starts attacking love in a way that he didn't use before. He addresses love saying what did you do to my eyes because they are seeing different to what they see in reality. They see ugliness, but they say that they see beauty. There is organic defect in his eyes. His eyes can detect beauty and know where it is found, but the result is that they give the best qualities to ugly things. If the problem is that my eyes are spoiled, the reason of this is that he has an over partial look over things. His beloved is like a ship which stands where all men can ride (it's not specific to him). She is anchoring in a common place, so if love made his eyes false by looking at his beloved, the looks to his beloved made his vision false. The first negative effect of love on him is that love made his eyes see falsely. The beloved makes an influence on his eyes and because love made false hooks to his heart, his heart made false judgement or prejudice due to his false vision.
Imagery:
1- Image of the bay where all men ride and his lady was like a ship.
2- Image of the hooks that catch and told the speakers hart and gripped it.
3- Image of a foul ugly face that he imagines beautifully.
4- The image of false plague or pestilence of self condemnation.
Parallelism:
- heart love-eyes vision.
Personification and metaphor:
- love as blind person heart which is thinking.
Paradox:
- best / worst; fair / fool; right true / erred.
Alliteration:
1- line 10 wide world.
2- line 12 fair foul face.
