Sonnet 137

1. Thou blind fool love, what dost thou to mine eyes,

2. That they behold and see not what they see:

3. They know what beauty is, see where it lies,

4. Yet what the best is, take the worst to be.

5. If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks,

6. Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride,

7. Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,

8. Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?

9. Why should my heart think that a several plot,

10. Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?

11. Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not

12. To put fair truth upon so foul a face,

13. In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,

14. And to this false plague are they now transferred.

False Vision

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Asking Elizabeth of the spell she has on him that makes him not see what he sees (Henry). Then telling her that his eyes do know what and where "beauty " is. That they know the best but must take this worst. Telling her further that she has made efforts to solidy this concealment. And somehow alluding to her concealment plot tells her despite what his eyes see they refuse to believe it. That his sight is focused on the "false plague" which is refers to the virtual death and disappearance of his child despite his known and healthful state.

1st Quatrain: (1-4)

Again the poets asks rhetorically how Love could change his perception. Oxford uses this metaphor of truth distorted in his and other's vision. Also here is now an important development in the poet's language for describing the child. The word "beauty" is a reference to Henry in line 3.

2nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Reflecting on the nature of human deception and its possibility in all. Asks however why Elizabeth has found it necessary to create such a deception in something so important to him.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

He continues to ask how she can put such a pleasant façade on this awful truth.

couplet (13-14),

Where his heart is now the destination of these lies that have infected both his vision and his true heart.

Commentary:

The poet again returns to his vision as the overriding element of this sonnet. Additionally he makes it clear that there is a falsehood that is being committed against the poet’s very sight. One for which the subject has had a hand in creating, is intimately personal to him and part of a plot of concealment.

This again is reminiscent of 150-148 which started the theme of his altered vision. It much like 148 where love is responsible for his altered vision. This theme will also continue more subtlety in sonnets to come such as 69, 46 and 47 and transforms to that of dreams in sonnet 43. The accusation of the subjeing untrue again as in 138.

In addition the notion of “beauty” as a noun and reference to something specific and substantial has also developed. It will become an immeasurably important point for understanding these sonnets.This sonnet is yet another which mentions the singular wrong committed by the subject toward the poet. While the couplet also provides the hint at the truth associated with Henry.


Other points of note are the “false plague”, the placing of “fair truth” on a “foul face” all things evocative of and discussions of the concealment of Henry and what the poet views as a false impression of the truth, beauty, and value of Henry. To which the couplet expresses that despite the impression of Henry as other than he is, his love and truth are embodied in Henry where previously they were with Elizabeth. But in addition that what has been characterized as a plague is not (a lie).


Lastly I think that the poet has moved to the more argumentative stage, reaching something of an emotional reconciliation with his trauma. I think this can be largely seen in the rest of the sonnets will largely resemble this same message in some form or another. Though also a new desperation and sense of anger presents itself in the end as failure becomes more apparentl

Vendler sees the connection to sonnet 148 and expresses “that it is essentially the same poem.” However she completely fails to connect either the intervening sonnets or the greater meaning alluded to by the dedication. She comments that this sonnet introduces into this “Dark Lady series the concept of the deceiving eye familiar from the young man series”. Failing of course to see the greater connection. Observing that the point is that the “heart and eyes can be said to err”. But what she is doing is confusing this meaning with the real meaning that the heart and eyes are being forced to err and this forcing is connected to the foul and wicked lie that is the real under current of this sonnet and every other sonnet. She comes close to an understanding when she comments on the “vague reference” of the repeated this in line 11 and the wholly unexplained reference of things right true in line 13. Both of these references are actually quite clear, this being a reference to what is well known to the subject, the misdeed so thoroughly spoken of by the sonnets. And things right true is also a reference to the converse of the foul lie, but also an important play on the name Vere (truth) and the association of Henry with that name through Oxford. This portion ties back to the false eyes of sonnets 150-148.