Viewed from the surface, Shakespeare's Sonnet 27 is a lament for the absent beloved. However, seen from a more careful perspective, it instead involves a mental journey that reveals the speaker's inner reality and state of mind. As in many of Shakespeare's sonnets, this poem is built on paradoxes which help to reveal the inner reality of the speaker. The axial paradox is the inspiring object that illuminates the speaker's nocturnal journey and at the same time makes his existence unhappy, since the object cannot be grasped or possessed by the speaker. This central paradox is expressed in the form of binary opposition codes that display the reality that the source of inspiration helped create in the speaker's mind. Unraveling these opposing images will lead us to the core or theme of the poem. The theme shows a reality from which the speaker cannot escape or possess his source of inspiration, and is bound to it day and night, physically and mentally, in light and in darkness. This situation releases his weariness and his lack of inner peace which dominate the entire poem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe first opposite code of the poem appears in the first quatrain: “tired of toil, I rush to my bed.” The bed serves as a place of rest where the speaker will briefly escape the weariness of his physical environment. In the first two lines, the bed appears as the place of “dear rest of travel-weary limbs.” However, this resting place is only the starting platform for another journey: the journey that the speaker's spirit, motivated by his beloved, will begin throughout the night. So far, there is an interaction of two opposing fundamental elements in the speaker's world: his physical reality and his mental reality. The end of the physical journey marks the beginning of a more imaginative and spiritual wandering. His mind begins to function “when the work of the body has expired.” The second quatrain also begins with elements in binary opposition. After being introduced to the separation and contrast of mind and body in the first quatrain, the second challenges certain conventions of logical meaning. During his nocturnal journey, he “looks into the darkness,” as “the blind see.” The importance of comparing oneself to a blind person and the way a blind person “sees” immediately establishes another contradiction: the blind cannot see; however, he can see as a blind man sees. He is blinded by the circumstances of his love, his desire and his desire for the beloved. This contrasting element reinforces the mood that the speaker has successfully established in the first quatrain. So far, the dominant images in his mind are of a dark mood. Until now, the darkness of night prevails in his mental exercise. The third quatrain, however, presents the most important opposing images that lead to the sonnet's paradoxical climax. It begins with the contrasting image of your loved one against the total darkness of the night. In the speaker's perception, the shadow of the loved one disrupts the ambient darkness and gloom that his journey has presented to him thus far. There are three very important opposing images intertwined in this quatrain that reveal the essence of the loved one's meaning to the speaker, as well as the significance of their mental "pilgrimage" in relation to their physical reality. First, we have the “imaginary sight of his soul” and the objects and means of this imaginary sight, even if he claims to see something, that something he sees is the product of his “blindsight”. This would recall the vision of his blind man from the second.