In Shakespeare sonnet 46, the speaker explores and dramatizes the conflict between two sensibilities: the aesthetic sense or "eye" vs. pure feeling or "heart."
First Quatrain: “Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war”
The speaker in sonnet 46 claims that his heart and eye are locked in a deadly battle. They are fighting over whether the poem is most influenced by the poet’s aesthetic capability, metaphorically represented by “eye,” or by his ability to feel strongly, metaphorically represented by “heart.”
The speaker claims that his “eye” would disavow that his heart is responsible for the poem’s appearance, “thy picture’s sight,” and the heart does the same to the eye. Thus,” Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war.”
Second Quatrain: “My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie
The struggle continues as the speaker reports that the heart is insisting that the poem rests in him; the heart claims that it protects the emotions, covering them from vision. If the eye cannot pierce the sanctuary of the heart, the heart feels it reigns superior in the poem’s creation. It does not need or allow the intrusion of the eye.
Then the speaker changes from the battle metaphor to a legal metaphor, referring to the eye as “the defendant” who is denying the claim of the heart, and insisting that the poem’s “fair appearance” is engendered by him—not the perjuring heart.
Third Quatrain: “To ’cide this title is impannelled”
To decide the outcome of this “mortal war,” which turned into a court battle, the speaker enlists a panel of “thoughts,” but these thoughts are not random; they are “all tenants to the heart.” It may be questionable whether these particular “tenants” can be fair and objective, but objectivity is not the speaker’s goal—harmony and balance are his treasure.
He avers that the verdict of this “quest of thoughts” will, in fact, satisfactorily decide the weight of the parts played by the eye and heart in his creation of poetry.
The Couplet: “As thus; mine eye’s due is thy outward part”
The couplet reveals a perfectly settled case: both eye and heart are in harmony in the creation of the speaker’s art. The eye determines the “outward part,” or appearance which includes form, use of image, rime, rhythm, and all other poetic devices, and the heart is responsible for the “inward love of heart,” or the content and subject matter of the poem.
This speaker/sonneteer has revealed time and time again that his true purpose in creating his poems is to reveal his love. The conflict is settled to the satisfaction of the speaker and to the upliftment of his aesthetic sensibilities as well as his assurance that his heart’s contents are well elaborated.
Other Shakespeare articles: 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, Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 22, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 24, Sonnet 25, Sonnet 26, Sonnet 27, Sonnet 28, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 30, Sonnet 31, Sonnet 32, Sonnet 33, Sonnet 34, Sonnet 35, Sonnet 36, Sonnet 37, Sonnet 38, Sonnet 39, Sonnet 40, Sonnet 41, Sonnet 42, Sonnet 43, Sonnet 44, Sonnet 45, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 96, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
