![]() As per Elizabethan tradition, such a comparison would have been almost expected. The poetic persona opens ‘Sonnet 130’ with a scathing remark on his beloved’s eyes. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Ĭoral is far more red than her lips’ red This sonnet also taps on the themes of love and perception vs reality. She does not have anything sparkling or glorious in her looks, yet the speaker treats his relationship as rare. Shakespeare says they are at a similar level. Using far-fetched comparisons to elevate a lady actually elongates the distance between two souls. It is a matter of seeing a human by her worth in one’s life. The main theme of this piece deals with the conventional way of glorifying a speaker’s beloved and how Shakespeare looks at her lady love. Alliteration: It occurs in “Co ral is fa r mo re red than he r lips’ red”, “ hear her speak”, etc.Allusion: According to scholars this sonnet alludes to the convention of glorifying a lady’s beauty in contemporary as well earlier sonnets.Here, Shakespear ironically comments on the epithets used by contemporary poets. Irony: Readers can find the use of irony in the final couplet.Hyperbole: It occurs in the following lines: “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” and “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”.Metaphor: Readers can find an implicit comparison between music and human voice in this line “That music hath a far more pleasing sound”.Simile: It occurs in the first two lines: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun / Coral is far more red than her lips’ red”.Shakespeare uses the following literary devices in his ‘Sonnet 130’. It means the meter is based on five beats or iambs per line. Shakespeare composed the poem in iambic pentameter with a few variations. The rhyme scheme of this piece is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This sonnet consists of three quatrains, followed by a rhyming couplet. Contemporary poets, such as Philip Sidney and Watson, would use the Petrarchan sonnet for its poetic form, whereas in ‘Sonnet 130,’ Shakespeare mocks all the conventions of it. Usually, most Elizabethan love poetry was written in the tradition of the Petrarchan sonnet. That’s why the speaker proclaims his love is rare as he does not flatter her with false epithets. There is no need to have a goddess if one has a partner who understands the minute emotional impulses. The speaker loves a lady with whom he can share his heart. She is as she is, not a lady with heavenly attributes. According to the poetic persona, his beloved is unlike the beautiful things of nature. Though Shakespeare presents the main idea in the couplet, each section reveals the qualities of a lady the speaker loves. The meaning of this poem is interesting to understand. By contrast, poets who compare their lovers to nature are not really describing them as they are, but idealizing them – and therefore, the poet seems to hint, they cannot love their beloved as much as he loves his mistress. Besides, her skin is dun and her hairs are like wires. For example, her eyes are nothing like the sun and her lips are not rosy. The lines he spends on her description could very well symbolize his true adoration for the mistress and her looks. The poetic speaker spends an inordinate amount of time describing his mistress down to the bare bones. In ‘Sonnet 130,’ William Shakespeare contrasts the Dark Lady’s looks with the conventional hyperboles used in contemporary sonnets. My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:Īnd yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,Įxplore Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I love to hear her speak, yet well I know ![]() Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I have seen roses damasked, red and white,Īnd in some perfumes is there more delight If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun Ĭoral is far more red, than her lips red: Therefore, the imagery used throughout the poem would have been recognizable to contemporary readers of the sonnet because it was playing with an established tradition that contemporary poets would have made use of quite frequently, so far as to lead it to become cliché. For example, it was not uncommon to read love poems that compared a woman to a river or the sun. ![]() ![]() In ‘ Sonnet 130,’ Shakespeare satirizes the tradition – stemming from Greek and Roman literature – of praising the beauty of one’s affection by comparing it to beautiful things, typically in a hyperbolic manner.
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