The Nature Of Love In Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 By William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Pablo Neruda’s “My ugly love” are popularly known to describe beauty in a way hardly anyone would write: through the truth. It’s a common fact that modern lovers and poets speak or write of their beloved with what they and the audience would like to hear, with kind and breathtaking words and verses. Yet, Shakespeare and Neruda, honest men as they both were, chose to write about what love truly is, it matters most what’s on the inside rather than the outside. The theme of true beauty and love are found through Shakespeare and Neruda’s uses of imagery, structure, and tone.

Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun Many authors compose sonnets about women whom they loved. Most of these authors embellish their women's physical characteristics by comparing them to natural wonders that we, as humans, find beautiful. Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" contradicts this idea, by stating that his mistress lacks most of the qualities other men wrongly praise their women for possessing. Shakespeare presents to one that true love recognizes imperfections and feels devotion regardless of flaws, while satirically expressing his personal thoughts on Petrarchan sonnets.

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.

The ideas of love being expressed in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Sonnet 130 are genuinely contrasting. In Much Ado About Nothing, one of the many focal points are Beatrice and Benedick’s foolish relationship, also the most captivating, whereas in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is talking about the misrepresentation of the “Dark Lady”, who he refers to as his mistress. Regardless of a person’s flaws disfigurements, the stress they cause, and the bickering that occurs, love can withstand time, and under the circumstances love doesn’t change for anyone, that it does not substitute itself when it finds differences in the loved one.

“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.

Sonnets are known for having a rigid format and being the hoard of poets’ flowery love confessions and tormenting heartache. While most poets generally stick to that cliche topic of love and the traditional English or Petrarchan structures, sonnets are not defined by these common features. Both Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are…” and Collins’s “Sonnet” satirically poke at typical sonnets, however, Shakespeare follows the standard English sonnet style while parodying the classic subject of love to show how ridiculous and idealistic love sonnets can be. On the other hand, Collins breaks free from those stern sonnet rules to joke about the strictness of sonnet structures while defining typical sonnet rules.

     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.

Indian activist, Mahatma Gandhi, once said, “Love is one of the most powerful forces of the world.” “Cyrano de Bergerac” is a French play that’s about a man who falls for a girl who doesn’t love him back. “Sonnet 18”, also known as “Shall I compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”, is one of Shakespeare's famous poems and it compares a woman to a summer day. Both brilliant allegories have many similarities in their massages despite being written almost three hundred years apart. Regardless of basic plot and word length, both stories posses surprisingly identical messages. Edmond Rostand's, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, and Shakespeare's, “Sonnet 18” both exhibit their themes of love, but while Rostand does it more through metaphors, Shakespeare does it more through personification.

In the poems ‘Let Me Describe for You Her Eyes’ by Glenn Colquhoun, and ‘Sonnet XVIII’ by William Shakespeare, both writers’ describe their experiences and ideas of love in two very contrasting ways, which can reflect on the world around us, and helped me learn about the how different relationships can affect people, and the world around them. Though their ideas may differ, both writers used similar techniques, such as the use of an extended metaphor. Similarly, both writers tone and structure supported their own ideas of what was like for them in the relationship of which they are writing, and helps the readers, as well as myself, to understand the message which their poems portray. Both, have very contrasting ideas when it comes to love,

These qualities are apparent in Sonnet 18 “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by Shakespeare which is written to a friend with whom the writer has a close bond. Sonnet 18, written in the Elizabethan Age of the Renaissances, stresses the writer’s affectionate feeling towards his friend. According to Shakespeare Online, Shakespeare wrote 126 poems for his dear friend, revealing their close relationship. By stating the flaws of “a summer’s day” (Sonnet 18, 1) while highlighting the perfections of his dear friend, William Shakespeare, in Sonnet 18, persuades readers that true love, even towards a friend, is immortal; since love is everlasting, the subjects’ memory will live on forever as

In the hands of a master such as Shakespeare, the conventions of the sonnet form are manipulated and transformed into something unique and originally emphasized. Both sonnets in one way or another subvert the conventions of the base Petrarchan sonnet; though they are about love, the traditional topic of sonnets, whilst in Sonnet 20 the object of desire is unattainable and there is no evidence of the level of affection being requited, the target is male, and the target of the poet's affections in Sonnet 130 is the poetic voice's current mistress. It also seems important to note that love in neither of these cases is of the generic youthful female Aryan stereotype, and

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.

“Sonnet 130” written by William Shakespeare, is one of his most well known poems and can be analyzed and broken apart in great depth. The poem is written in fourteen lines which makes it a sonnet. Like all of Shakespeare’s sonnets the meter is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme for “Sonnet 130” is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. An overlaying theme for “Sonnet 130” is, “True love is based on how beautiful you find someone on the inside.” Shakespeare proves to have a great view on true love in this sonnet. He cares more about what’s on the inside rather than what’s on the outside. “Sonnet 130’s” theme can be proven by Shakespeare's use of poetic and literary devices, the tone and mood of the sonnet, and the motif of true love.

William Shakespeare was a poet that has been acknowledged as one of the greatest play writers and dramatist of all times. He had a gift to transpire heartaches, love, and outrage, throughout all his literary creations. This gift protruded all through his many plays and sonnets that he ended up leaving as a part of his legacy. "Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict." [1]. In my eyes, what allows Shakespeare to have become so incomparable, was his creative capability of simultaneously using the correct choice of word, tone, and structure, to allow one sonnet, to have so many different interpretations. In Sonnet 138, "When my love swears that she is made of truth", Shakespeare once again crafted different levels of interpretations to portray his opinion once more on love. Edward Snow, an American poet, and translator, who was the winner of the 1985 Harold Morton London Translation Award, as well as the recipient of an Academy of Arts and Letters Award for the body of his Rilke translations, calls the sonnet "a touchstone for Shakespeare's dramatic imagination" [2]. Many think that the sonnet is a continuance of the topic Shakespeare started to talk about back in Sonnet 127, which was about "The Dark Lady" [3]. The Dark Lady, or also known as his mistress, was so called this, because of what is said in earlier poems in which it was made clear that she had black hair and had dun-colored skin [4].

The belief that distance and time can alter everlasting true love is exactly what poisons love. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” was written for a lover who does not know of his love for her. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” was written for his lover to show her that he will still love her no matter how far away he is from her. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” similarly explores the theme of everlasting true love. However, the poems differ in rhyme scheme and the techniques used to convey the message. The poets use these tools to convey that everlasting true love does in fact exist. Although both speak passionately about said love, only Donne has actually experienced it.