Sonnet 47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
love
absence
imagination
consolation
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my love's picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away art resent still with me;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.
What It Means
The dispute from Sonnet 46 is settled. Eye and heart have made a deal: each can borrow from the other. The eye can feast on the young man's portrait; the heart can call up the image any time it likes. The thought of the young man is always available. As long as eye and heart can access each other's stores of love, he's never truly absent.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence, the resolution of Sonnet 46.
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