Sonnets 18 and 130: Defending and Defying the Petrarchan Convention

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 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.

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.

Sonnets written in Elizabethan England were usually after Petrarch’s works. Petrarch was a man who was in love with a girl name Laura de Noves. He wrote 366 poems about his love for this woman from the year 1327 all the way until 1368. His works were very stereotypical love poems that included lines like, “She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine, / A noble lady in a humble home, / And now her time for heavenly bliss has come, / Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.” Petrarch wrote in such a way to charm a woman, as did many other writers of his time. However, there is one writer who took a different approach when writing about the woman he admired. This man considered on the greatest writers in the English language; William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 130” is a reverse portrayal of Petrarch’s ideas of a love sonnet and what it should be.

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 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

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.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” is one of the famous in Shakespeare’s day. The speaker compares his lover with the nature in an uncomplimentary manner, but at the end he proves that he truly loves her, which gives reliability to his argues. Using a different phenomenal metaphor, he describes the love in subverting and reverses the conventions.

“False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu! Dead is the root whence all these fancies grew,” (Sir Walter Raleigh). Raleigh portrays the love of poets as false love, which is similar to the way William Shakespeare describes it in Sonnet 130, where he mocks the way other poets exaggerate their muses’ beauty. Though one would assume Shakespeare wrote this sonnet to give to his mistress, he did not, as he was smart enough to know she would never talk to him again if he did. He in fact wrote it to mock Petrarchan sonnets which exaggerated beauty to the point where it was no longer real and it was obvious the poet's love went no deeper than the skin of their mistress. In the sonnet Shakespeare first appears harsh in criticizing his mistress’ beauty, but as the sonnet progresses, he subtly reveals that his love for her is unconditional to ultimately challenge society’s cliched beliefs of love.

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.

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.

The title of the poem “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” suggests that the speaker is not in love with his ‘mistress’. However, this is not the case. Shakespeare uses figurative language by using criticizing hyperboles to mock the traditional love sonnet. Thus, showing not only that the ideal woman is not always a ‘goddess’, but mocking the way others write about love. Shakespeare proves that love can be written about and accomplished without the artificial and exuberant. The speaker’s tone is ironic, sarcastic, and comical turning the traditional conceit around using satire. The traditional iambic pentameter rhyming scheme of the sonnet makes the diction fall into place as relaxed, truthful, and with elegance in the easy flowing verse. In turn, making this sonnet one of parody and real love.

Shakespeare examines love in two different ways in Sonnets 116 and 130. In the first, love is treated in its most ideal form as an uncompromising force (indeed, as the greatest force in the universe); in the latter sonnet, Shakespeare treats love from a more practical aspect: it is viewed simply and realistically without ornament. Yet both sonnets are justifiable in and of themselves, for neither misrepresents love or speaks of it slightingly. Indeed, Shakespeare illustrates two qualities of love in the two sonnets: its potential and its objectivity. This paper will compare and contrast the two sonnets by Shakespeare and show how they represent two different attitudes to love.

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