Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
An unconventional love poem about the
“Dark Lady”
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In a conventional love poem the writer would
exaggerate how beautiful his mistress is:
My mistress' eyes are more
fantastic than the sun;
But in his unconventional love poem Shakespeare
underplays how beautiful his mistress is:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
He has turned around the convention of exaggerated praise
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He carries on with the unconventional approach in
the next lines
Pink-orange colour
Her lips aren't red
Conventional
desirable feature
Coral is far more red than her lips' red
Something
of a cliche
The conventional
Grey brown colour
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
Is he saying she is not
beautiful or is he saying
Can we answer this
or do we need to read on? she is beautiful in a different way?
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In the next lines he moves on to describe other
physical features
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
So she is not
Gold wires were used Blondes were more
conventionally
in head-dress and
highly rated
beautiful
compared to golden hair
mixed
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white
But she doesn’t
have this complexion
But
no such roses see I in her cheeks;
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The author moves from how she looks to how she
smells
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
Smells- the word
He’s not saying the smell of
didn’t have a
her breath is unpleasant just that perfume smells sweeter negative meaning in
Shakespeare’s time
In conventional love poems
you would say her breath was
sweeter than perfume
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But Shakespeare takes an
unconventional approach
The next feature is the sound of her voice
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
He’s not being critical of her voice:
all he’s saying is that music
has a more pleasing sound
In the conventional love
poem the writer
would say that her voice
was sweeter than music
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The poet describes how his mistress walks
I admit
to you
I’ve never seen
a goddess walk
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
My mistress walks like anyone else,
on the ground, rather than floating through the air
In a conventional love
He’s stressing his mistress is no goddess. poem she would be
described as
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a goddess
So does the poet think that his mistress is beautiful
or what?
The last 2 lines tell us
Direct statement, telling
us what he thinks
exceptional
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
For emphasis As any she belied with false compare.
The poet thinks she’s
She is as beautiful as
beautiful but doesn’t want
any woman who is praised
to describe her in a clichedhttp://marrasouk.com
way.
with false comparisons
A sonnet has 14 lines
The first 12 lines are
3 quatrains
Groups of 4 lines
rhyme scheme
ABAB
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.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false
compare.
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With a
closing couplet
Sums things up