Critical Analysis Of Sonnet 130

While the woman may outwardly profess her desire for her sexual partner, the dispassionate diction and detached tone within the sonnet suggest otherwise. For, in acknowledging her lover’s close proximity, she states that she is “urged”

In the first quatrain of “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”, the speaker is already showing that this is not an ordinary love poem. He says, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (line 1). This metaphor depicts that the woman does not have bright eyes. Most poets would use a cliché to describe a woman’s eyes as bright or like sapphires, but the speaker is saying there is nothing special about her eyes. Next, the speaker describes the woman’s lips. The color coral is slightly orange, but he believes coral is more red than her lips. Also, most poets would describe their subjects to have bright, shiny red lips (2). In these two lines, the speaker compares his mistress to things found in nature, and many people associate beauty with nature. However, that is not the case with this poem. He describes her as the complete opposite. In line 3, the woman’s skin is described as gray which makes it seem like her skin is dull. In Shakespeare's time, pale skin was more desirable, and since she does not have a pale complexion, it would make her less attractive. The speaker then compares her hair to wire in this line: “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (4). A beautiful woman is usually described as having silky locks. That is the opposite in this poem. This comparison depicts the woman to have hair that lacks

     During the Renaissance, it was common for poets to employ Petrarchan conceit to praise their lovers. Applying this type of metaphor, an author makes elaborate comparisons of his beloved to one or more very dissimilar things. Such hyperbole was often used to idolize a mistress while lamenting her cruelty. Shakespeare, in Sonnet 18, conforms somewhat to this custom of love poetry, but later breaks out of the mold entirely, writing his clearly anti-Petrarchan work, Sonnet 130.

In modern times, youth and beauty is an image seen everywhere. For example, a Versace billboard, magazine ad, TV commercial, all of which displays images of beautiful people. But what happens when this beauty fades? Shakespeare in his 12th sonnet talks about his experience and fading beauty. The purpose of this poem is to encourage a young man to not lose his beauty to the ravages of time. In order to do this, one must reproduce so beauty will live.

In the first two quatrains, Shakespeare is judgmental towards his mistress and how she does not compare with other beautiful worldly things. For example, the first line of the sonnet begins, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (line 1). The speaker uses this comparison to say that the eyes of his mistress are not bright and they do not give off a

Poetry has always had a common theme where lovers are portrayed as goddess-like, based on their beauty and love. However, in William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” written as an English sonnet, the speaker has a different vision, as he realizes that his lover’s beauty cannot be compared to that of a goddess, nor can it be found in nature for she is just a typical human being. His love for her is eventually shown, but without the use of the cliché image of beauty. Shakespeare’s use of metaphors, contrast, language and structure demonstrates that love is complicated and that real beauty is unrealistic and impossible to live up to.

Shakespeare uses this poem to express her flaws; her wire-like black hair, reeking breath, and pale skin. Nonetheless, he ends with the flattery the mistress longs for and expresses his incomparable love for her. Her role is of such significance because she is the mistress that is so full of flaws and shown for her faulty human qualities, but Shakespeare loves her anyway. Most poets of his time put their women on pedestals to show their love for them, Shakespeare used the truth to show his love for his imperfect

Sonnet 130 is a parody of the conventional love sonnet, made popular by Petrarch and, made popular in England by Sidney’s use of the Petrarchan form in his epic poem Astrophel and Stella. When comparing the stanzas of A & S to Sonnet 130, the reader can clearly see that the sonnet does not use grandiose metaphors or allusions to build his beloved into a divine figure. Despite it being an obvious parody, it will be compared to the chosen lines from the Tempest. In Shakespeare’s day, metaphors that allude to putting the beloved on a pedestal of beauty had already become a cliché, but they were an accepted technique for writing love poetry nonetheless. The way these poems would describe the poet’s lover was high idealized, making comparisons

The women who Shakespeare describes would never be sought upon or wished to be drawn out for readers because of the fact that it was not the conventional standards of poems describing beauty. Shakespeare takes the most common descriptions a sonnet gives and twists them into something that wouldn 't be considered predictable and or accepted. The differing factors of this comparison is the fact that Shakespeare 's objective in describing his fair lady was to completely go against the conventionality of describing a women 's beauty in a poem.

While the speaker compares his mistress to several beautiful things which are never in favor of the mistress, the speaker shows how the sonnet makes a complete mockery of Petrarchan conventions. The speaker constantly compares his mistress to beautiful and valuable objects. The speaker notes that “[He has] seen roses damasked, red and white”, to show how he has seen a variety of different color changes in roses; However, he acts surprised by the fact that he has never been able to see that marvelous color change in his mistress’s cheeks which show how . In the first few lines of the poem, the speaker points out what his mistress’s physical appearance is lacking. The speaker thinks his “mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.” Instead of making

Elizabeth Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese was published during the Victorian Era, which was an intense time where poetry was governed by male poets and writers. Women were to remain silent in poetry, pursue their education, and be controlled by the desires of their father or other male authoritative figure. The sonnets, at this time, were a form often used for poetry where the men would address a maiden as an object and subject of love. Elizabeth’s sonnets was a representation of her response to the society’s tradition, which brought about a challenge to modern concepts of gender equality. They not only relate a courtship between a man and a woman, but also a transformation of a woman to a poet. This shows the proto-feminist side of the speaker, but she does not solely focus on this matter throughout the sonnet, instead she focuses solely on the equality that men and women achieve through love. In Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker frees herself from being both the object and subject of love and poetic thought by addressing a man as an object and controlling her own voice and desires to obtain equality.

One of William Shakespeare's tools from his choices of words was figurative diction since most words used to describe the narrator’s mistress were based in comparing her to other objects. For example, the poem starts with the narrator using the words “eyes”, “like”, “nothing”, and “sun”. The narrator introduces an example of a simile from the figurative choice of words since the word “like” is been used to compare her to something else. In this case he's comparing the sun’s brightness to the dull light of his mistress's eyes and the eyes are important because they are the door to the soul. Then in line 2 from Sonnet 130, the narrator says that the color of the coral outcast more “her lip’s red”. This is an example of a metaphor since the narrator

It is a sonnet that is a parody compared to his usual loved ones. Shakespeare makes no endeavor at deification of the dark lady; in fact, he shuns it outright, as we optically discern in lines 11-12: "I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground." Here the poet limpidly verbalizes that his mistress is not a goddess. She is withal not as comely as things found in nature, another typical source of inspiration for the average sonneteer: “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red" (1-2). Yet the narrator dotes her nonetheless, and in the closing couplet verbally expresses that in fact she is just as extraordinary ("recherché") as any woman described with such hyperbolized or mendacious comparisons. It is indeed this blunt but charming sincerity that has made sonnet 130 one of the most famous in the sequence. Some things that he compared her to did not sound pleasant, such as when he says her breath ‘reeks’. When we think of someone’s breath reeking, most peopl think of onions or

Sonnet 106,“When in the chronicle of wasted time,” begins with the first quatrain recounting the subjects, ladies and knights, that were used by chroniclers of the time in their writing. Similarly, the second quatrain describes the physical beauty being a focus for the poems of the writers before him which continues in the third quatrain, expressing the prosperity of the writers by giving credit to fate due to them lacking the essential skills. The speaker ends the sonnet with couplets articulating the present time of the speaker himself and how indescribable the beauty of his subject is. Beauty is a wide topic that is present in the sonnet, especially the aspect of physical beauty. The description between the subjects is compared without the right words to express the speaker's current subject. In William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 106: When in he chronicle of wasted time,” the speaker focuses on the irony of writing about physical beauty that cannot be captured in words.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (Line 1). “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Line 1). These are both two of the famous lines from William Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 and 130. William Shakespeare was an intelligent English playwright, poet, and dramatist during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He is known as one of the greatest playwrights of all time. Sonnet 18 and 130 are two of Shakespeare’s most famous poems. Sonnet 18 is a love poem about how he compares the woman’s love to a summer’s day. Sonnet 130 has a different approach. It is still a comparison, but it seems to be a more spiteful one. These sonnets are both share similar subjects, imagery, theme, and rhyme scheme; however they are more so different in forms and purpose.