My Mistress 's Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun, When Love Arrives

Sonnets 127-154 are addressed to the “dark lady” (hereafter the mistress). Shakespeare’s relations to his mistress vacillate; sometimes sanguine, tender, teasing, or bitterly anger; yet it is a simpler relation than that

“The courtly lady…possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.” Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered “feudal lord” due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a “lord” would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

In “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun,” poet William Shakespeare describes his love for a woman that throughout the poem he states is nothing special to most but special to him. Shakespeare uses imagery, similes, metaphors, alliteration, and irony to show the reader all love poems do not have to be the same but still profess the love one has for another.

In the satirical sonnet My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun, English poet William Shakespeare pokes fun at the unrealistic standards of beauty that, unfortunately, many still use to judge women. Through most of the poem, Shakespeare uses metaphors and comparisons to illustrate his mistress. The poem begins with Shakespeare comparing his mistress’ eyes to the sun. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," he says, suggesting they are not bright or unique, contrary to what society would consider ideal (Shakespeare, 1). Then, Shakespeare claims that coral is “far more red than her lips”, again, opposite to the beautiful red plump lips that one would imagine (Shakespeare, 2).

Many may wonder what, if any, significant differences and similarities one could find in a poem and a song that was composed almost 100 years apart. At first sight, nothing, but after one has analyzed all the elements, in turns out to be more than it may have first appeared. In T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, we read the ramblings of a middle aged man who loathes himself and never takes any risk in his life. In contrast, Garth Brook’s Standing Outside the Fire, is more about inspiring others to take those risk otherwise one is not really living. With many decades between the two, we see many different poetic devices especially with one being simply a song and the other a poem. As well as, a difference in the authors styles and life. Although, even if the works are unique in their poetic ways with only slight similarities, both explore taking chances or risk in life and the consequences of not taking any.

Knowingly or not, poems are either read or listened to each day, usually as a song. Poetry comes in a variety of forms, but what many are not aware of, is that songs are also a form of poetry. Songs are poems just placed with a beat behind it. They are made up with the goals to affect the listener with their words and song structure. One songwriter, Ed Sheeran, builds his songs using several literary devices. At first listen to one of his songs, Give Me Love, it can be interpreted as another love song. But after reviewing the lyrics, it can be noticed that he brings his words to life through specific diction, a certain mood, and a theme to bring the words to life. Analyzing any poem or song can give the reader a deeper understanding, or sometime

Another Demonstration of tone, taking an addition to author's purpose, is portrayed in “My mistress’ eyes” by William Shakespeare in which he was mocking the point of view of other poets that over exaggerated the beauty of a woman. This poem reflects the essence of being ironically loving through tone, where Shakespeare decides to correctly compare his mistress. “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare.” Taking into account the way he decides to use his tone of indifference, as if he were really talking truths about his lover, that the harsh things he says about her don’t matter. He relies on the reality of his Mistress’ misfortune and unappealing characteristics to define his affection accurately.

Of Shakespeare’s collection of sonnets, a vast majority have been commonly established to be both written about and voiced to a beautiful, aristocratic young man often labeled the ‘Fair Youth’ — a seemingly polar opposite to the almost unsavoury, lower-class ‘Dark Lady’ assessed as the featured object of desire within the last 25 sonnets. Although some scholars such as Nelles (2009) neglect the prospect of two separate, distinct and truly gendered narratives, this concept must be considered in reference to the forms of love found between the two dichotomized narratives. While the love felt towards the Fair Youth seems to be more distanced and inactive compared to that within the explicitly physical Dark Lady sonnets, the frequent blurring

During Shakespeare’s time, the societal norms that cultivated women were very precise. Women were held to high standards to look certain and act in a specific way, but did society ever take it too far? Many poets during Shakespeare’s time wrote blazon sonnets, ones that compared women to the most wondrous things life has to offer; gems, jewels, plants, and stars. Such beautiful comparisons, but so unrealistic and degrading. Women had become a collection of objects rather than human, but Shakespeare shed some light on the matter at hand and presented a new way of thinking. In Shakespeare’s My Mistress’ Eyes, he purposefully contradicts the typical blazon tradition, uses enjambment, and uses rhyme schemes to create a sonnet which serves as a statement that disowns the societal views on women.

Love is a concept that continues to fascinate, frighten, and inspire the world, which has resulted in countless films, visual art, and literature that is based solely around it. Every other song playing on the radio or movie that comes to theaters will more than likely contain love related themes. The universality of love is what makes it so addictive, be it romantic or platonic. Human desire and longing tends to be translated into the arts, resulting in some of the most beautiful works ever crafted, the theme being so widely understood. The craft of poetry is considered to be so impressive because of the poet’s ability to condense a complex idea into a limited amount of words, and still get the message across to the

For purposes that exist outside of the narratives, both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the first eighteen sonnets of his published sequence are self-referential. This is evident as his sonnets explore the notion of preserving the subject’s beauty by establishing themselves as the primary method in which this may occur in order to win favour with a potential patron. On the other hand, A Midsummer Night’s Dream employs this technique in order to comment on the notion of classical love, achieved through allegory, meta-theatricality and the representation of love demonstrated by character relationships. With the intentions of currying a patron’s favour and making comment on the supposed fable of classical love, these works by Shakespeare are both self-referential and allegorical.

Throughout the course of time, love poems have shaped around common themes and techniques which we in today's society are very fond of and have seen multiple times in not only poetry but in movies, photos, and novels. For example, the works Tales of Genji, Tales of Ise, and Sarashina Diary, are written by different poets but share multiple techniques and themes. One theme, which can be generalized as, the "flow of time."

More precisely, the lady is described as black and thus obviously confronting the convention, but she is still regarded beautiful – even if only by the speaker and his friend, who nevertheless feel attracted to her because it is the “heart that loves” (Shakespeare 141), not the eyes. In other words, the dark attractiveness of the poet’s mistress can still be ‘enjoyed’ since both the poet and his male friend find the lady attractive enough to sleep with her (in both cases) and to write poetry about her (in the case of the poet). This non-conformity of the female image and the introduction of the male image into the sequence is, according to Craik, the indication of Shakespeare’s deviation from the convention (165). At the same time, Callaghan retorts as follows: “[T]he inamorata … confirms to the specifications of type precisely because she is like no other” (19). A paradox seems to emerge here – the darkness of the Lady goes beyond the convention, but her extraordinarity complies with it. However, the black attractiveness of the Lady does not feel as beauty: Although attracted to her, the speaker distictly sees imperfections in her appearance (Shakespeare 141). Moreover, “Sonnet 130” clearly reveals that being “black” is not the only

The speaker began with a harsh comparison of his mistress, declaring, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (1). This begins the censorious tone and allows the speaker to explain his distaste with his mistress’s outward appearance. While this seems harshly critical during an initial reading, by the end of the poem, the speaker concludes, “And yet by heaven I think my love as rare, / As any she belied with false compare” (13-14). This final declaration of love despite comparisons to societal expectations reveals the true purpose behind Shakespeare’s description of his mistress. True love does not rely on physical attributes, and can exist despite any distaste with the physical view of the object of one’s