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Sonnet 130 - William Shakespeare 'An Unconventional Love'

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13 February 2013
"Sonnet 130" – William Shakespeare An Unconventional Love
I will be writing about William Shakespeare 's poem "Sonnet 130." In the sonnet, every other line rhymes, with the exception of the last two lines which rhyme on their own as a rhyming couplet. The poem follows the rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. This sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, containing fourteen lines and ten syllables within each line. The iambic pentameter makes the sonnet sound redundant, placing emphasis on every other word, giving an overall dull feeling. This creates a redundant sound. This is offset by the use of imagery within the text, using colours such as "red" to describe the beautiful "coral" and "white" to describe the …show more content…

This excitement in imagery is dulled with a dimness only to be re-excited through the imagery of smell through the use of metaphor. Once again starting with a positive imagery, the "delight" in the fragrance of "perfume," only to be contrasted with the pungent "breath that from my mistress reeks." Once again, there is a beauty through imagery which is then quickly snuffed out by the "reek" of "breath." The contrasting lines seven and eight are those of smell imagery, but once again are quickly replaced with sound imagery. In lines nine to twelve, there the "pleasing sound" of "music" in line ten, trumps the sound of her voice. This is immediately removed from the mind through the tranquility of a "goddess" who flows, only to be contradicted by the way the "mistress ... treads on the ground." While I have found the rhythm of the sonnet to be monotonous, constant, and drab; like that of the mistress, the exciting alternating effect of sharp and dull visual, smell, and sound imagery has created a contrasting effect. It is as there is a sense of trickery through the use of metaphor and imagery. As soon as my feelings have been settled about the mistress, I am immediately distraught by another image, then taken through another sense, and then another. Even then by the end of the

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