Poetry: Reaction And Interpretation

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Date: February 17, 2011 Poem or poems: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun & Whoso List to Hunt Type of entry: Interpretation The theme of Shakespeare's poem “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” is love, but not only love; this is more about real love that is not superficial and which overcomes the hardships of time. The speaker has an attitude of irony towards courtly lovers who compared their ladies with beautiful things such as angels and supernatural entities. He believes that one cannot compare something with another thing that nobody has seen before. Shakespeare did not follow any Petrarchan conventions which said that the lady who one loves is the most graceful and beautiful woman on Earth. This affirmation can be clearly confirmed in the poem “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” by all the courtly love conventions which are destroyed. The speaker describes his mistress as not having rose cheeks, red lips, white skin and beautiful eyes. He says that she stinks and walks as a “truck driver”. This poem can be paraphrased as follows: the girl whom the speaker frequents is an ugly creature which stinks and can't be compared with a goddess, but still he loves her. He simply loves her. The poem “Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt has a theme of love, or to be more specific, courtly love. The speaker's love is compared to a female deer. This animal is very hard to catch even if most of the time it seems so close to us; indeed, when we are to get him, it flees. This poem can be paraphrased as follows: the speaker is not the only one who is trying to conquer the girl who belongs to aristocracy, or more specifically to Caesar; thus it is impossible to “catch” her even if sometimes it could seem so easy to do. He is completely tired to run after her and discouraged. The speaker is probably Thomas Wyatt himself describing how he
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