Sonnet 147

Sonnet 147 is an extended metaphor, comparing love to a disease. It has robbed the speaker of his senses, and taken over his life. He finally realizes that he was not actually in love with her- he simply desired her. However, now he feels as though he cannot be cured, and that he will go insane. I think the theme of this sonnet is that love (or simply even attraction to other) can be blinding. In the ending couplet, the speaker comments that he thought the subject to be beautiful, but now realizes that she is “black as hell, dark as night.” He was simply so infatuated with her, that he was unable to make a correct judgment of her character.