Instead, his imagination, or "my soul's imaginary sight," conjures images of his loved one in his mind. As his eyelids are "drooping" with exhaustion, his thoughts keep his eyes wide open so that he can look "on darkness which the blind do see:" the night is so dense that it is as if he has no sense of sight at all. The imagery of blindness permeates this sonnet, since the speaker is unable to use his eyes as he lies awake in the dark. In comparing thinking of the fair lord to a pilgrimage, the speaker implies that his devotion borders on religious faith. Pilgrimages were taken to a holy place, like a church or a shrine, and often involved weeks of traveling by foot or on horseback to show devotion. The "zealous pilgrimage" upon which the speaker's thoughts embark in line 6 refers to a mental journey, as if his thoughts are capable of traveling physical distance like his body. Shakespeare is influenced by the themes of these sonnets, and might even be making fun of them. This theme of a restless night spent thinking of a lover from whom the speaker is separated echoes traditional sonnets, for example Sidney's Sonnet 89 from Astrophel and Stella. Sonnets 27-30 are meditative, focusing on the sleeplessness that comes with restless nights. "Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind, / For thee, and for myself, no quiet find."ĭuring the day, my body yearns for you, and at night my mind is restless thinking about you. Which would bring beauty to the darkness around me. "Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, / Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new." "Save that my soul's imaginary sight / Presents thy shadow to my sightless view," The thoughts of you keep my eyes wide open in the dark: "And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, / Looking on darkness which the blind do see:" "For then my thoughts - from far where I abide - / Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,"Įven though I am far away from you, my thoughts travel to where you are "But then begins a journey in my head / To work my mind, when body's work's expired:"īut even though I'm resting my body, my mind continues to work My body exhausted from traveling, I go to bed "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, / The dear repose for limbs with travel tired "
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