William Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “my mistress eyes are nothing like the sun”, is nothing like what people are used to hearing in a poem describing a woman. In fact, sonnet 130 is the direct opposite of the traditional romantic love poem. “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” is another way Shakespeare creatively expresses his opposition to conformity and his advocacy for women’s natural beauty. Given the contexts of this literature within this unit’s study of the feminist lens in AP English IV, it is evident that in sonnet 130, Shakespeare perpetuates feminism. It is reality that not all women will fit one standard of beauty, but is it fair to praise one woman's seemingly distinguished beauty?
to note the unconventional nature of the woman he is discussing. The ‘turn’ of the poem, in which Shakespeare’s attitude about the Dark Lady changes, occurs in the final rhyming couplet – “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (lines 13-14). Here, he shows that, despite her strange appearance, he loves her anyway. Harryette Mullen’s sonnet “Dim Lady,” however, is a play on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, using much less formal language and structure. Instead of 14 lines of structured iambic pentameter, Mullen’s poem is 12 lines of no specific meter, acting more like informal prose than anything else.
My Mistress’ eyes are Nothing Like the Sun 1. Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg 2. The initial tone of the poem is Satirical and mocking. The poet does not direct the mocking tone at his Mistress, but rather at the world, who seems to believe that women and love is perfect and that no fault can be found with the one you love. The poet gives the impression of repulsiveness when he speaks of his Mistress’s hair and breath (“Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” “If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head.”) He uses a tone of honesty when describing her unpleasant voice (which he loves to hear) and the way she walks (“I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound;” “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.” He uses nature’s beauty to describe her complete imperfection in comparison to nature.
By comparing his lover to the ‘Indian Ganges’, and himself to the ‘Humber’, a considerably less desirable river, he attempts to win her over with flattery, creating an entertaining image for the reader. Similarly, in ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning continues the theme of flattery, by listing the many ways in which she ‘loves thee’, except in this poem, there is no contrast, her sole aim
Even he finds that coral is more red than his mistress lips. Like this way in the whole sonnet he describes that snow is white but her breast is dun. black wires grow in her head instead of golden wires. ‘I have seen roses damasked, red and white But no such roses see I in her cheeks’; Where everyone describes his beloved cheeks with rose, he dose not find any similarity between rose and his beloved cheeks. Again he describes that though he loves to talk with his beloved, some music have more pleasant sound.
‘praise’ and ‘faith’. The poem seems to be an oxymoron as it describes the perfect love however it fails to follow the perfect pattern for this type of poem. In contrast the Holy Palmers Kiss is an example of Shakespeare’s many sonnets with 14 lines, one element of this sonnet is the problem/solution argument in which Romeo presents an if/then situation e.g. ‘if’ he violates Juliet’s hand, ‘then’ he’ll make it better by kissing it. This problem/solution argument allows Romeo to propose the idea of kissing Juliet without insulting her innocence however Juliet presents another ‘solution’ in which Romeo has committed no sin in touching her hand as ‘saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch’.
Shakespeare satirizes the hyperbole of the allusions used by conventional poets, which even by the Elizabethan era, had become cliché, predictable, and uninspiring. This sonnet compares the Poet’s mistress to a number of natural beauties; each time making a point of his mistress’ obvious inadequacy in such comparisons; she cannot hope to stand up to the beauties of the natural world. The first two quatrains compare the speaker’s mistress to aspects of nature, such as snow or coral; each comparison ending unflatteringly for the mistress. In the final couplet, the speaker proclaims his love for his mistress by declaring that he makes no false comparisons, the implication being that other poets do precisely that. Shakespeare's sonnet aims to do the opposite, by indicating that his mistress is the ideal object of his affections because of her genuine qualities, and that she is more worthy of his love than the paramours of other poets who are more
Towards the end of Shakespeare’s sonnets, his preoccupation seems to be less with the fair, young blonde and is steered in another direction, towards that of a more mysterious dark lady. Where sonnet’s in the fair youth section seem to be more straightforward, focussing on beauty and its preservation against time. The dark lady section however is far more thoughtful and takes a totally different angle on love, in some poems dubbing it a maddening disease. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare, instead of exaggerating his beloved’s physical features by comparing them to the sun, coral, snow, roses, perfumes, goddesses, declares that he can proclaim his love for her despite the fact that she is not a model of beauty with inhumanly perfect features. In the first quatrain, instead of exaggerating the beauty of his lady’s eyes by claiming that they outshine the sun, this down-to-earth speaker asserts that those eyes are “nothing like the sun.” He fails to describe the eyes at all, but as he continues through other body parts, he becomes more expressive.
This sort of pain is compared to death when he refers to the woman “[having] put on black” .This typifies the pain that men can feel and shows a somewhat excellent sensitive side that not only Shakespeare but other patriarchally born men of his time may have shared. Following these somewhat harsh words seen in the opening lines it can be noted this isn’t a normal petrarchan sonnet, instead it is labelled an anti-petrarchan sonnet due to its subtle attack on a unattainable idealized female. Shakespeare uses the senses as well as emotions cleverly in the poem. Although he knows this beautiful woman has no similar feelings towards him the man still can’t help but proclaim her beauty. In line 4 the poet shows just how
A goddess walks by as the next line is read and while she is more beautiful than anything visualized up to now she is too perfect to truly desire. An average woman walks down a forest path barefoot and in a dress, she is not perfect and makes no claims to be. However, visualizing her causes stirrings in the heart, she makes you want to scream out your love for it is stronger due to her flaws for they make her more human (Shakespeare 631). Here we give one of [Shakespeare’s] sonnets (probably written in the mid-1500s), in which he playfully rejects similes and other figures of speech. His contemporaries often compared a woman’s hair to fine spun gold, her lips to coral or to cherries, her cheeks to roses, her white breast to snow; when such a woman walked, she seemed to walk on air (the grass did not bend beneath her),