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Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 24: Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd

by William Shakespeare

Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd,

Thy beauty's form in table of my heart;

My body is the frame wherein 'tis held,

And perspective it is best painter's art.

For through the painter must you see his skill,

To find where your true image pictur'd lies,

Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still,

That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.

Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done:

Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me

Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun

Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee;

Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art,

They draw but what they see, know not the heart.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Quick facts

Poem
Sonnet 24: Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd
Poet
William Shakespeare
Length
14 lines
Form
Sonnet
Themes
Love

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
14 lines · one 14-line stanza
End rhyme
ABCBDEDEFGFGBB.
Line length
Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
William Shakespeare1564–1616
Source record
PoetryDBSonnet 24: Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 935647f2d65d9713
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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