Shakespeare Sonnet 24
Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d
The speaker in Sonnet 24 compares the art of poetry to the art of painting, revealing the importance of heart-felt love in the creation of art.
First Quatrain: “Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d”
In the first quatrain, the speaker informs his poem that like a painter he has captured the poem’s beautiful form and now keeps it locked in his heart. With that image placed in the central location of the heart, his body functions as a picture “frame” to hold that form.
The speaker further makes the claim that “perspective it is best painter’s art.” This point of view reveals that the best artist has a deeply felt “perspective” or attitude toward his subject and that “perspective” or attitude is the force that propels his creativity.
Second Quatrain: “For through the painter must you see his skill”
Also continuing his comparison of the poet to the painter, the speaker insists that the viewer for, reader of, or audience to the artist can comprehend the artist’s creations only by taking note of “his skill.” This speaker is inviting criticism of his art, and he portrays a confidence that his skill can win over any audience. He not only knows he has talent, but he also loves his talent and is grateful to God for granting him that talent.
The speaker explains, “To find where your true image pictur’d lies,” you must realize that the creations are in the artist’s heart—at least the artist, whose eyes are cast lovingly upon his own works, as the speaker/poet insists his are.
Third Quatrain: “Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done”
Then the speaker reveals that the artist’s eyes can do marvelous creations when they are lovingly cast upon his works. His works look back at him and reflect the love the artist feels for his creations. They do each other “good turns,” because each is brightened by that love, as if “where-through the sun / Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee.”
The Couplet: “Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art”
On the other hand, those clever painters, poets, and other artists who merely decorate their art for ego-enhancing purposes do not take their works from their heart’s joys; instead they merely “draw but what they see.” This artist/speaker insists on drawing from a deeper, even spiritual, well than what the eyes can “see.”
This speaker is deeply in love with his art, and therefore he not only uses it to express his emotions, but he also uses it to feel them more abundantly. This speaker lives deeply in his talent, and his talent rewards him with a keen understanding of his own heart.
Other articles on Shakespeare: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Shakespeare Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 22, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
