Shakespearean Sonnets
Read and Annotate
SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
SONNET 130 PARAPHRASE
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
brownish gray;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips;
If snow is white, then her breasts are a
If hairs are like wires, hers are black and not
golden.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
I have seen damask roses, red and white
[streaked],
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
But I do not see such colors in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
And some perfumes give more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
Than the horrid breath of my mistress.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
I love to hear her speak, but I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
That music has a more pleasing sound.
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
I've never seen a goddess walk;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: But I know that my mistress walks only on
the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
And yet I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
As any woman who has been misrepresented
by ridiculous comparisons.
ANALYSIS
dun (3): i.e., a dull brownish gray.
roses damasked, red and white (5): This line is possibly an allusion to the rose known as the
York and Lancaster variety, which the House of Tudor adopted as its symbol after the War of the
Roses. The York and Lancaster rose is red and white streaked, symbolic of the union of the Red
Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. Compare The Taming of the Shrew: "Such war
of white and red within her cheeks!" (4.5.32). Shakespeare mentions the damask rose often in his
plays. Compare also Twelfth Night:
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. (2.4.118)
than the breath...reeks (8): i.e., than in the breath that comes out of (reeks from) my mistress.
As the whole sonnet is a parody of the conventional love sonnets written by Shakespeare's
contemporaries, one should think of the most common meaning of reeks, i.e., stinks.
Shakespeare uses reeks often in his serious work, which illustrates the modern meaning of the
word was common. Compare Macbeth:
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds
Or memorise another Golgotha,
I cannot tell. (1.2.44)
rare (13): special.
she (14): woman.
belied (14): misrepresented.
with false compare (14): i.e., by unbelievable, ridiculous comparisons.
__________
Sonnet 130 is the poet's pragmatic tribute to his uncomely mistress, commonly referred to as the
dark lady because of her dun complexion. The dark lady, who ultimately betrays the poet,
appears in sonnets 127 to 154. Sonnet 130 is clearly a parody of the conventional love sonnet,
made popular by Petrarch and, in particular, made popular in England by Sidney's use of the
Petrarchan form in his epic poem Astrophel and Stella.
If you compare the stanzas of Astrophel and Stella to Sonnet 130, you will see exactly what
elements of the conventional love sonnet Shakespeare is light-heartedly mocking. In Sonnet 130,
there is no use of grandiose metaphor or allusion; he does not compare his love to Venus, there is
no evocation to Morpheus, etc. The ordinary beauty and humanity of his lover are important to
Shakespeare in this sonnet, and he deliberately uses typical love poetry metaphors against
themselves.
In Sidney's work, for example, the features of the poet's lover are as beautiful and, at times, more
beautiful than the finest pearls, diamonds, rubies, and silk. In Sonnet 130, the references to such
objects of perfection are indeed present, but they are there to illustrate that his lover is not as
beautiful -- a total rejection of Petrarch form and content. Shakespeare utilizes a new structure,
through which the straightforward theme of his lover’s simplicity can be developed in the three
quatrains and neatly concluded in the final couplet.
Thus, Shakespeare is using all the techniques available, including the sonnet structure itself, to
enhance his parody of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet typified by Sidney’s work. But
Shakespeare ends the sonnet by proclaiming his love for his mistress despite her lack of
adornment, so he does finally embrace the fundamental theme in Petrarch's sonnets: total and
consuming love.
One final note: To Elizabethan readers, Shakespeare's comparison of hair to 'wires' would refer
to the finely-spun gold threads woven into fancy hair nets. Many poets of the time used this term
as a benchmark of beauty.
References
Petrarca, Francesco. Petrarch, the first modern scholar and man of letters. James Harvey
Robinson, ed. New York: Haskell House, 1970.
Sidney, Philip, Sir. Selected writings of Sir Philip Sidney. Richard Dutton, ed. Manchester:
Carcanet Press, 1987.
Tomlinson, Charles. The sonnet: its origin, structure, and place in poetry. Folcroft: Folcroft
Press, 1970.
Mabillard, Amanda. An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. Shakespeare Online. 2000.
(day/month/year you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeareonline.com/sonnets/130detail.html >.
SONNET 18 PARAPHRASE
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
Rough winds shake the beloved buds of
May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
And summer is far too short:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, At times the sun is too hot,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; Or often goes behind the clouds;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, And everything beautiful sometime will lose its
beauty,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; By misfortune or by nature's planned out
course.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, Nor will death claim you for his own,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long as there are people on this earth,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. So long will this poem live on, making you
immortal.
ANALYSIS
temperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.
the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun.
every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair)
will fade (declines).
Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's compass come."
nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings.
that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess.
in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a
technique used to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the
beloved becomes immortal, grafted to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For
commentary on whether this sonnet is really "one long exercise in self-glorification", please see
below.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most
straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the
poetry and the subject of that poetry is the theme.
The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of
his friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at
the start of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the
standard by which true beauty can and should be judged.
The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be forever in
human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his
verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final
couplet reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will
live on, and ensure the immortality of his muse.
Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love
poem. As James Boyd-White puts it:
What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloved’s form or
height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really.
This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of
itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view
one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest
recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. (142)
Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted
by scholars that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126.
Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his
friend.
For more on how the sonnets are grouped, please see the general introduction to Shakespeare's
sonnets.
For more on the theme of fading beauty, please see Sonnet 116.
___________
References
Boyd-White, James. The Desire for Meaning in Law and Literature. Current Legal Problems.
Volume 53. Ed. M. Freeman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.
Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. Tucker Brooke. London: Oxford UP: 1936.
Shakespeare, William. The Works of Shakespeare. Ed. John Dover Wilson. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1969.
Smith, Hallett. The Tension of the Lyre. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1981.
How to Cite this Article
Mabillard, Amanda. An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. Shakespeare Online. 2000.
(day/month/year you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeareonline.com/sonnets/18detail.html >.