Sonnets 18 and 130: Defending and Defying the Petrarchan Convention
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 Sonnet 18, Shakespeare employs a Petrarchan conceit to immortalize his beloved. He initiates the extended metaphor in the first line of the sonnet by posing the rhetorical
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Although Shakespeare appears to be conforming, he still elevates his work above the exhausted conventions of other Elizabethan sonneteers. Instead of objectifying his lover through trite comparisons, he declares that she is too beautiful and pleasant to be compared even to a day of the most enjoyable season of the year. While most consider the realm of nature to be eternal and that of humans to be transitory, Shakespeare accentuates the death of a season and imbues his sweetheart with everlasting life. He ingeniously inverts the scheme of things in order to grant his love perpetual existence through his poetry.
Unlike Sonnet 18, Shakespeare utterly abandons the poetic convention of Petrarchan conceit in Sonnet 130. In this poem, Shakespeare denies his mistress all of the praises Renaissance poets customarily attributed to their lovers. The first quatrain is filled exclusively with the Shakespeare's seeming insults of his mistress. While Sir Thomas Wyatt authors a poem entitled "Avising the Bright Beams of These Fair Eyes," in the first line of Sonnet 130, Shakespeare affirms that his "mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun." John Wootton, in a poem published in England's Helicon, boasts that his love has "lips like scarlet of the finest dye," but in Sonnet 130 , Shakespeare is sure that his beloved's lips are not nearly quite as red as coral (11; 2). Michael Drayton, in his poem, To His Coy Love, begs his lover, "Show me no more those snowy
about all her let downs when it comes to beauty and so compares it to
“Sonnet 130: My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” composed by Shakespeare, is one of my favorite poems because of the way diction is creatively used to convey a message. Instead of using elaborate poetic syntax, he recurred to utilizing the same format in a more realistic context to deliver a bare interpretation of true love’s essence. As time has passed, language has evolved along with culture and gained different connotations. If this poem was to be read using today’s modern understanding of the language, this sonnet would probably cause a different response than the one from its time period.
In “Trout” by David Marlatt and “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare, both describe their loves in unusual, more complex ways then what is usually written in poetry. “Trout” describes a day where the speaker swims next to his love, and explains to her that she is as beautiful as a trout. Throughout the poem, however, there seems to be a tone of admiration, and the audience cannot hellp but feel that the speaker is giving his love one of the highest praises he can possibley think of. In “Sonnet 130”, the speaker juxtaposes his love to certain elements found in poetry, such as red and white roses, goddesses, and music, and says that in comparison to these she is but average and plain.
Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is often also referred to as “My mistress’ eyes,” which adds emphasis to the first line, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” As the opening line, this makes readers aware of what they are about to encounter throughout the sonnet. In this work Shakespeare is simply mocking the work of writers like Petrarch, and we as readers love it. Metaphors making comparisons to nature are often used to show the beauty of something when writing. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” makes the same comparisons, however he makes the metaphors in favor of the natural features rather than his mistress. Shakespeare isn’t being rude to his mistress by doing so; he is taking things at face value and being blatantly honest.
Shakespeare is known for praising both men and women for their humanly beauty, but this sonnet is one that stands out from that crowd because not only is the famed William Shakespeare praising a man for his beauty, but an old man none the less. This xonnet the best example of Shakespeare’s love because it has sexual diversity, a grand respect for old age, and a love that lasts for an eternity.
In particular, published in 1609, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is considered a more “modern” take on romantic poetry during his time. Unlike the Petrarchan love sonnets that were previously the standard form of romantic poetry for over 300 years, Shakespeare strove to challenge the status quo. "However, many Neoclassical critics were willing to attribute Shakespeare’s violation of classical rules to ignorance" (Lauder). Shakespeare’s work is a product of the cultural shifts during the Renaissance movement. Enlightened by society’s drift from restrictive views on religion, artists like Shakespeare were no longer anchored to the “classical rules.” This free rein allowed writers to be inquisitive about society, questioning how humankind fits into the greater aspect of the world. It is is even speculated that the muse for his sonnets was not actually a female mistress but a man. This is often an argument proposed to explain the seemingly mysterious atmosphere surrounding Shakespeare’s sonnets. Specifically, Sonnet 130’s mood is depicted as playful to showcase the raw complexities governing humanity in an entertaining fashion—something once unheard of in the English Tudor period. Ultimately, this same “ignorance” would only pave the way for future playwrights and poets.
In William Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 130,” he describes his lover in a non-idealistic way by describing her features which are the complete opposite of a typical lady in a Petrarchan sonnet. A sonnet is a 14 line poem with 10 syllable lines and a rhyming scheme that uses iambic pentameter. Petrarchan sonnets idolize women by creating a dream lady, thus resulting in unrealistic features. The typical Petrarchan lady has blonde hair, a high forehead, pale skin, and a long neck, and the physical traits are seen as a reflection of inner beauty. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” uses figurative language and a creative structure to mock the Petrarchan ideal by portraying true love for what’s in the inside instead of lust or infatuation.
Shakespearean Sonnets consist of 154 Sonnets that are well know for their themes such as passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. Out of all the Sonnets, Sonnet 130 is the most significant because Shakespeare mocks the concept of traditional Sonnets. The traditional sonnet were usually love poems or Sonnets that person would show how much they praise someone or thing by exaggerating their beauty through imagery and comparisons. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare does the complete opposite compared to his peers and compares his mistresses beauty in an unflattering way. He compares her beauty to the ideal Elizabethan female of that era but he still expresses his affection to her because of the way she truly looks. After a close analysis of the language and imagery that Shakespeare uses it shows that even with the harsh comparisons, he truly loves his mistress and that its better to express the truth rather than exaggeration of the truth.
William Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated poets in the world. During his career he began to notice his celebrity status, and it became evident in his work. Shakespeare’s sonnets do not portray a love of their subject, they actually portray his ego. The language, mood and treatment of the subject are the elements of the portrayal. First of all, the language used in Shakespeare’s sonnets is not romanticizing; it is egotistical.
One reads in Wyatt’s sonnets about some justice in love; there is more than unrequited love and enduring adoration and misery. His male lover expresses a desire to break out of his amorous prison. This is an anti-Petrarchan theme. This is the opposite of the hopelessly adoring pose of the enslaved Petrarchan lover.
William Shakespeare's 18 Sonnet, more popularly known as the "Shall I Compare Thee" sonnet, is about a lover who is speaking to his beloved. Most sonnets serve this same function; to profess love from the sonneteer to some individual whom he loves. In these poems, the lover always uses the most amazing adjectives to describe the woman, or sometimes the man, that he loves. The poet describes every component of his beloved, such as her hair and her lips and her eyes. Although not a sonnet, Robert Burns' poem has the same function; it is a love poem from the unnamed narrator to the
“Sonnet 130” is written in fourteen lines with an iambic pentameter .In the first line of the stanza “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, the speaker emphasized the word “My” will present his own feelings for his lover. The image of mistress’ eyes has duller than the sun’s light in his view. In the second line, he compares “[his lover’s] lips” with
In sonnet 130, Shakespeare uses conceits to describe the eyes of his mistress as “nothing like the sun” and coral as “far more red than her lips’ red” (lines 1-2). The idea of him not loving this woman because she is not traditionally good looking is disproven by the fact that Shakespeare cared enough to write a sonnet about her. Truly, if this woman was not loved she would have gone unremembered and unwritten about. The satirical tone of sonnet 130 can be perceived as rude, but the tone more accurately is used to show a loving couple that make fun of each other’s small faults: “the breath that
Though usually written on the subject of love, sonnets are sometimes also written about beauty and nature. The themes of sonnet 130 – my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun’- are masked underneath Shakespeare mocking the unrealistic comparisons
William Shakespeare is recognized for being one of greatest poets of all time. His works are still popular to this day. Many of his works included extended metaphors and similes with rhetorical language and were rooted in the nature of love. Two of his poems that are rather alike, but also very contrastive are “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and “My mistresses’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” They both contain a core theme of love or anti-love in some aspects. While these two poems are built around the same type of subject, their interpretations come across in separate ways. In contrast to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” which is a serious love poem that contains imagery and metaphors, Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is more negative and humorous but contains imagery and similes.