Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

His language in the second and third quatrain’s is more euphonious when he describes his mistress, indicating that he feels for her, and the flaws that he lists are only skin deep. Following the depiction of her cheeks the speaker goes on listing her flaws, one after the other; he comments how the “breath” (Shakespeare 8) of his “mistress reeks,” (Shakespeare 8) to her her “dun” (Shakespeare 3) breast and her displeasing “damasked” (Shakespeare 5) skin. It seems that the speaker is doing the exact opposite of a conventional love poem as he’s not placing the beauty of a mistress on a pedestal, rather he lowers her in beauty in the eye of reader by describing, in detail, her lack of beauty, aiding in his ridiculing of the conventional love

At the time of its writing, Shakespeare's one hundred thirtieth sonnet, a highly candid, simple work, introduced a new era of poems. Shakespeare's expression of love was far different from traditional sonnets in the early 1600s, in which poets highly praised their loved ones with sweet words. Instead, Shakespeare satirizes the tradition of comparing one's beloved to the beauties of the sun. From its opening phrase "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", shocks the audience because it does not portray a soft, beautiful woman. Despite the negative connotations of his mistress, Shakespeare speaks a true woman and true love.

The Presentation of Women in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Griffin’s Sonnet 39 What attitude do their presentations of women reflect? Discuss in detail how the poets’ choice & use of language influences your reading of poems. It is evident in both Griffin’s poem and Shakespeare’s poem that their love for their beloved is matchless; however the presentations and the personal interpretations of the two poets give a totally different message to its readers. It is often in Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 that we realize he ridicules his mistress and praises her in a way that misleads its readers to believe that Shakespeare doesn’t love her. Whereas, in Griffin’s Sonnet 39, he puts his lady as the central motive of the poem and this is obvious as almost every line in his poem begins with the word “her.” Without a doubt, the first line in both poems portrays a direct contrast from each other.

Daniel’s “Sonnet 6” vs. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” Daniel wrote a conventional love sonnet using the traditional Petrarchan style of putting the idea of love, or the mistress, on a pedestal. Shakespeare turned these ideas on their heads by portraying a mistress who was by no means special and most certainly unappealing. By comparing Daniel's “Sonnet 6” and Shakespeare's “Sonnet 130,” one may quickly conclude that Daniel’ s and Shakespeare’s ideas of the perfect lady and of love differ greatly.. During Daniel's time there was a traditional way of writing love poems. Many of these poems talked of an unattainable woman whose love and perfection was so great she could only be considered to be divine. This is exactly what Daniel did.

It is known that poems were circulated between poets and the poem attacks other poets who flatter their lovers with false comparisons and ridiculous promises, ‘as any she belied with false compare’. Shakespeare claims that that he loves his mistress so much that he can be truthful about her and not exaggerate a beauty that is not there, which conveys a more sincere and genuine tone than a flattering love poem. ‘And yet, by heaven I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare’ Shakespeare writes with huge emphasis on her less attractive features, ‘But no such roses see I in her cheeks;’ illustrating that in spite of all these flaws, he still loves her for her intelligence and her spirit ‘I love to hear her speak’ and that it is her imperfections that make her perfect for him. He also makes it very clear that he does not appreciate the artificial efforts women make to enhance their appearance ‘And in some perfumes is there more delight’. The phrase suggests that although perfume may have a delightful smell in comparison to his mistress’ breath ‘Than in the breath my mistress reeks’ it is insignificant to him as he is more intereste... ... middle of paper ... ...ed has betrayed and left him.

On the other hand, in the sonnets, Shakespeare also questions about whether romantic love as lasting as it seems. Since both the sonnets and Romeo and Juliet have the same cynical view on romantic love, I do not agree with this statement. Because either one of them is more cynical than the other. In the following paragraphs, I would prove to you how both the play’s view on romantic love concurs with the sonnets. A very famous sonnet, number 130, portrays Shakespeare’s mistress as a hideous woman, without eyes like the sun, without coral red lips, with breast like dun and hair like wires etc.

Renaissance readers would understand the way Shakespeare was describing this woman and why he was. He wasn’t they only who saw these women in such ways. Shakespeare is parodying the already hackneyed views of “beauty” as defined by society and the outlandish metaphors use to describe the beauty of the person, Shakespeare “ sonnet 130” is basically saying “look , my love is not perfect and her lips aren’t as red as roses and her eyes are not as blue as sapphires, but she is beautiful to me simply because I love her”(Educator Emeritus 2007). He is slightly making fun of all the poem who use those incredibly unrealistic comparisons to declare the depth if their love. He truly has a sense of humor, and this is still so true today.

Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare’s harsh yet realistic tribute to his quite ordinary mistress. Conventional love poetry of his time would employ Petrarchan imagery and entertain notions of courtly love. Francis Petrarch, often noted for his perfection of the sonnet form, developed a number of techniques for describing love’s pleasures and torments as well as the beauty of the beloved. While Shakespeare adheres to this form, he undermines it as well. Through the use of deliberately subversive wordplay and exaggerated similes, ambiguous concepts, and adherence to the sonnet form, Shakespeare creates a parody of the traditional love sonnet.

Where the opening line is “ My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;” This line is straight away implementing that either he is saying his lovers eyes are so beautiful that they cannot even be compared to the sun or he is saying his lovers eyes are nothing like the sun’s. Now we find out what he means by reading the second line “Coral is far more red then her lips’ red”. Now we certainly know that the author is actually being rude, and the picture I was getting, was his lover was quite an unattractive woman. He compares her using metaphors to for every part of her body and dishearten her. But he describes her as an earthly and realistic woman.

In this sonnet, imagery is through negative thoughts and words. He says “My mistress ' eyes are nothing like the sun” and that “Coral is far more red than her lips ' red.” He is comparing coral to his ladies lips. In these two sonnets, imagery is used similarly since both show how beautiful the woman is, in each separate poem. However, imagery in Sonnet 130 explains that beauty is not everything due to his women being not as beautiful as the one in Sonnet 18, but still loving her. While in Sonnet 18, the imagery shows that his women is more beautiful than a “Summer’s day,” and that her beauty will last