Shakespeare Sonnet 129 Interpretation

In life people sometimes face different tribulations that bring them down such as being judged for their physical appearance or even the way they are. Writers in literature who are known to write about romantic things sometimes use this as a way to create things to write about. In sonnet 130, Shakespeare helps us understand that even though his wife has different flaws he still loves her for who she is as a person. Shakespeare uses a critical and judgmental tone to show that even though he compares his mistress to all of these things he still loves her even though her physical appearance isn’t the best.

Many men compare try to make their mistress feel special like they are no other by comparing them to false comparisons. The speaker was not afraid to be blunt about his mistress instead of how other men use false comparison and fill their mistress head up. William Shakespeare gives the speaker a blunt tone in Sonnet 130 to convey that he was not bragging on his wife saying she is all this and that. He said things that others compare their mistress to. That is what make his love for his mistress unconditional and very special.

Joseph Pequigney, author of Such is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, agrees with and elaborates on Freud. He writes, “All of these characteristics belong to the poet’s love for the friend. It is a love that pays handsome narcissistic dividends; it is advantageous also for the friend, who is praised for personal qualities that would likely pass unnoticed were the poet not under the spell of his beauty.” Pequigney goes on to touch on the antithesis of the poet’s love for the young man, his lust for his mistress the “dark lady”. Because the mistress offers no self-seeking advantages, she is “disesteemed with vice but never virtue ascribed to her” (Pequigney 157). The poet attacks and questions her physical attractiveness as the affair goes on and she arouses lust that comes and goes.

The amount of beauty that a woman possesses is different, which makes each woman unique in her own way. Although, a woman should not be judged by what she looks like on the outside, society today makes it seem that if a woman does not have perfect hair or a perfect body, they are not beautiful. In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, he gives details of the speaker’s descriptive comparison of nature’s beauties to his mistress’ beauty. Shakespeare uses a judgmental tone with misrepresentative word choice to suggest that even though his mistress doesn’t live up to society’s standards for women, her beauty is unique in his eyes.

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.

‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay are both sonnets that discuss companionship and a glimpse of the poets’ experiences. In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare illustrates how capability is weakened by its metaphysical stereotype and ideals such as, love which never seems to wither away according to Shakespeare while on the contrary, in ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” Millay feeds on the chaos between the ideal of love and its harsh reality, heartbreak. Both poets seem to be love struck but there is a significant difference in the two. I will compare and contrast ‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I will also inquire and analyze why this particular form of poetry established different effects.

Although Shakespeare was mocking other writer’s forms of love poems, I feel that he had a much deeper and more meaningful purpose to his sardonic writing. Shakespeare wanted to show that women can be beautiful without having cheeks as red as rose, or eyes

Dating back to 1609, William Shakespeare artfully crafts a poem, in which illuminates a man’s struggle through self-reflection and faith. With fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, the poem embodies the characteristics of an English sonnet. Allowing the character to “look upon myself,” Shakespeare writes about the feelings of a singular person; thus, creating a lyric poem. Masterfully working within the tough parameters of closed form, Shakespeare strays away from typical meter and rhyme scheme only when emphasizing the true nature of the persona’s spirit. In Shakespeare’s sonnet “When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,” the poet employs numerous poetic devices to exemplify the persona’s struggle with loneliness and self-worth,

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

Sonnet 129 is an abnormal poem amongst Shakespeare’s collection; it deals with the complex emotion that is referred to as lust. At first glimpse, this sonnet appears traditional like the others, but an in-depth reading shows tha Unlike the other 153 romanticized sonnets that Shakespeare wrote, sonnet 129 is full of frustration, exasperation, and contrition over the effect of a woman on his character. Lust can cause one misery, and Shakespeare illustrates this fact in his sonnet through the use of tone, language, and metaphor. Sonnet 129 appears to be like many of Shakespeare’s other Sonnets, it follows the traditional rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), and its use of alliteration and syntax make for a melodic and mellow tone. However, this sonnet is unlike Shakespeare’s other for many reasons.

Sonnet 129 is about the sin of lust and the actions and feelings that correspond with it. The author tells a story of sorts, outlining the feelings one goes through before, during, and after indulging in lust. It tells of the urge before, the bliss during, and the regret and shame after. The author states that although men know the unhealthy cycle, they continue to take part in it. Underlying, however, is the speaker’s own struggles within lust. The speaker feels great religious guilt and shame for his sin. Moreover, the act of lust itself as well and his fear, and regret surrounding it, drive the speaker towards madness that he attempts to remedy by finding a logical solution to this human struggle.

Shakespeare’s sonnet 60 expresses the inevitable end that comes with time and uses this dark truth to express his hopefulness that his poetry will carry his beloved’s beauty and worth into the future in some way so that it may never die. This love poem is, as all sonnets are, fourteen lines. Three quatrains form these fourteen lines, and each quatrain consists of two lines. Furthermore, the last two lines that follow these quatrains are known as the couplet. This sonnet has the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, as most Shakespearean sonnets follow. In each of the three quatrains, Shakespeare discusses a different idea. In this particular sonnet, the idea is how time continues to pass on, causing everything to die. The couplet connects these ideas to one central theme, this theme being Shakespeare’s hope for the beauty of his beloved’s immortality through his poetry’s continuation into future times.

Shakespeare uses a sarcastic tone to make a mockery of Shakespeare wife. In Sonnet 130 William Shakespeare is providing a point that looks don’t always matter. If they have a great personality and are funny it could most likely make up how they may look. There's somebody perfect out there for everyone. You can go through life judging a book by its cover. Sometimes personality and sense of humor are more important than how attractive someone might be.

During the Renaissance period, most poets were writing love poems about their lovers/mistresses. The poets of this time often compared love to high, unrealistic, and unattainable beauty. Shakespeare, in his sonnet 18, continues the tradition of his time by comparing the speakers' love/mistress to the summer time of the year. It is during this time of the year that the flowers and the nature that surround them are at there peak for beauty. The theme of the poem is to show the speakers true interpretation of beauty. Beauties worst enemy is time and although beauty might fade it can still live on through a person's memory or words of a poem. The speaker realizes that beauty, like the subject of the poem, will remain perfect not in the

“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.