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Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  Sonnet CXLVIII

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.

“O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head”

Sonnet CXLVIII

O ME! what eyes hath Love put in my head
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,          5
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: no.
How can it? O! how can Love’s eye be true,
That is so vex’d with watching and with tears?   10
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
  O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind,
  Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.