Sonnet 43 by William Shakespeare.

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,

For all the day they view things unrespected;

But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,

And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.

Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,

How would thy shadow’s form form happy show

To the clear day with thy much clearer light,

When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!

How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made

By looking on thee in the living day,

When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade

Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!

All days are nights to see till I see thee,

And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

William Shakespeare's sonnet 'Sonnet 43' is a fourteen-line sonnet written in the

"Shakespearean" or English sonnet style. Three quatrains, or sets of four lines, and one
concluding couplet, or collection of two rhyming lines, make up the poem. They are
written in iambic pentameter and follow a consistent rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG. Each line comprises five sets of two beats, referred to as metrical feet. The
first is stressed, while the second is unstressed.

In this sonnet, the poet makes extensive use of imagery. “I love thee to the depth and
breadth and height.” This conjures up visions of love streaming in all directions.

These are some of the poem's only lines that use concrete imagery – "sun and candle-
light" – and even then, it's only representations of various types of light, not necessarily
definite things. This is an incredibly abstract, ambiguous lyric that seems to take place
outside of this setting, perhaps more so than other poems.
 Sonnet 67 by Edmund Spenser

Like as a huntsman after weary chase,

Seeing the game from him escap'd away,

Sits down to rest him in some shady place,

With panting hounds beguiled of their prey:

So after long pursuit and vain assay,

When I all weary had the chase forsook,

The gentle deer return'd the self-same way,

Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook.

There she beholding me with milder look,

Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide:

Till I in hand her yet half trembling took,

And with her own goodwill her firmly tied.

Strange thing, me seem'd, to see a beast so wild,

So goodly won, with her own will beguil'd.

The rhyme scheme for these poems is abab bcbc cdcd ee.

The majority of Spenser's sonnets are about lust. Until Sonnet 67, the sonnets are mainly
concerned with the disappointment of unfulfilled romantic desires. The sonnets that
follow Sonnet 67, on the other hand, praise both the happiness of love shared between
two people (Spenser and Elizabeth) and divine love.

Spenser also discusses courtship and the power dynamic of successful relationships. In
particular, he depicts women desiring to be in control in a romantic relationship, echoing
Geoffrey Chaucer's central theme in The Canterbury Tales' "The Wife of Bath."

He also addresses true beauty and how writing poetry can immortalize things that cannot
be immortalized otherwise, such as humans. Finally, Spenser's poetry often refers to God
and faith, particularly in the second half of the series, which celebrates the theme of
divine love.
The lover imagines himself to a hunter who is stalking his prey (lady love) but is totally
exhausted because his prey has escaped from him. As a result, his hunt or pursuit was
fruitless.