Kayla Briceno

Ms. Gardner

English 10 H, Per. 6

7 September 2016

Sonnet 43 Analysis

In Sonnet 43, the light of day is unfavorable to the poets love life: Through bright

visions in dreams the poet views his lover. William Shakespeares use of striking imagery and

eloquent alliteration by using consonance stages the struggle the poet faces between night and

day.

The resonant consonance of the lines shade shines so, nights bright, and dark

directed emphasizes the importance of these words or phrases to the poets battle against

daytime. These words come together to indicate how the brightest moments in his love life occur

at night. The rich diction in line five of the second quatrain Then thou, whose shadow shadows

doth make bright suggests that the sight of her in his dreams is beautiful, enough to brighten

even the most lightless shadows. The lucid imagery found in line four And, darkly bright, are

bright in dark directed heightens the contrast between night and day. By contrasting day and

night the poet successfully creates the image of a person peeking through a dark object to find a

shadow of brightness. The emphasis of night and day enables the readers to envision how highly

he thinks of her and how beautiful her appearance is to him. The use of dramatic paradox in the

concluding couplet All days are nights and And nights bright days provides an interesting

and elaborate image. The volta of the sonnet suggests that the lover has the power to make days

nights and nights days, by simply having an alluring presence.

 Ultimately, the poet is angry with the light of day, for he can not see the one he loves

unless she is in his dreams at night. Because he is human he is seeking for someone to love him

as much as he loves the other individual. The poet longs for the day when he can see his beloved

in person during the daytime. For now, he has to come to accept that he can only see her beauty

in his dreams, until the day arrives in which he can see her face to face.