Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took

by William Shakespeare

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1Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,

2And each doth good turns now unto the other:

3When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,

4Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,

5With my love's picture then my eye doth feast,

6And to the painted banquet bids my heart;

7Another time mine eye is my heart's guest,

8And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:

9So, either by thy picture or my love,

10Thy self away, art present still with me;

11For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,

12And I am still with them, and they with thee;

13 Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight

14 Awakes my heart, to heart's and eye's delight.

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“Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-47

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
Poet: William Shakespeare
Length: 14 lines
Form: Sonnet
Themes: Love, Sad, Dreams & Sleep

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
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 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took 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 56bb0c91a1955c83…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Sonnet Love Sad Dreams & Sleep

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