Sonnet 130 William Shakespeare

 

ABOUT THE POEM: 

SONNET 130:

        The sonnet under study is a very popular sonnet. The poet turns convention on its head by reversing the petrarchan simil- my mistress eyes are not like the sun, etc. In fact, he adds, 'her hair is like black wire'. Some readers might be led to think that this poem is against love, since the poet seems to suggest that there are other things that are more beautiful than his beloved. However, typical of a Shakespearean sonnet, there is a volta or turn, occuring in the final couplet that states that his beloved is more beautiful than any lady misrepresented by false comparisons.

The poem : 

                          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.

                    The Shakespearean sonnet, the form of sonnet utilized throughout Shakespeare's sequence, is divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains, rhymes ABAB; the fourth part is called the couplet, and is rhymed CC. The Shakespearean sonnet is often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain, while the couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or ideas. 

Summary in English:

             This sonnet compares the speaker's lover to a number of other beauties--and never in the lover's favour. Her eyes are "nothing like the sun", her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. In the second quatrain, the speaker says he has seen roses separated by color ("damasked") into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistress's cheeks;  and he says the breath that "reeks" from his mistress is less delightful than perfume. In the third quatrain, he admits that though he loves her voice , music "hath a far more pleasing sound", and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress - unlike goddesses - walks on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, "by heaven", he thinks his love as rere and valuable "As any she belied with false compare" -- that is, any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved one's beauty.

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