In this sonnet, the speaker is trapped in a painful relationship, begging his lover to stop hiding her unfaithfulness. He would rather she wound him with open words than with sly, sideways glances that hint she loves someone else. He can’t defend himself against her power, so he asks her to use it directly: tell him the truth, or just look at him with her full, destructive beauty. Halfway through, he tries to excuse her—maybe she turns away so her deadly looks will strike others and spare him. But he immediately takes it back. Since he’s already near death from the torment, he begs her to kill him outright with her gaze and end his misery. He’s so desperate that he’d rather be destroyed by her open attention than kept in this agonizing uncertainty. The poem’s language is tense and intimate, moving from protest to a strange, painful acceptance. Love and resentment tangle into a mood of raw, anguished honesty, as if we’re overhearing a moment of total emotional surrender.
Sonnet 139: O! call not me to justify the wrong — Summary
O! call not me to justify the wrong That thy unkindness lays upon my heart; Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue: Use power with power, and slay me not by art, Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere; but in my sight, Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside: What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy might Is more than my o'erpress'd defence can bide? Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows Her pretty looks have been mine enemies; And therefore from my face she turns my foes, That they elsewhere might dart their injuries: Yet do not so; but since I am near slain, Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.