sonnet 130

[pink.sky]

My Misrtess'Eyes are Nothing Like the sun by william shakespeare

My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun

My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun
By William Shakespeare


The poem, “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun”, by William Shakespeare, is not a traditional love poem that compares a women to beautiful sites and wonderful smells of the world. Instead, the mistress in this poem is said to be nothing like all of the many splendors the reader has experienced. In the poem, the author uses many phors and comparisons to create a vivid image of a hideous woman. The poem meets the requirements of a Shakespearean sonnet and is written in iambic pentameter. It follows the rhyme scheme ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. It is composed of three quatrains and one couplet and the end. Throughout the poem, the speaker creates a vision and even an atmosphere of a dreadful woman. However, in the very end he contradicts everything he has said and states that despite her ugliness in almost every possible way, he loves her for what she is on the inside.
The speaker begins the poem by painting the image of the first thing most people see when they look at another person, the face. By saying, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” he gives the impression that she is very plain. He continues this by saying, “Coral is far more red that her lips’ red.” Coral is a dull red. When saying that even coral is much more red than the color of her lips, he is saying that her lips are so dull they can hardly be called red at all. He then moves to her skin, a key feature in the image of an entire body; “If the snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.” Dun is a grayish brown color, an already unsatisfying tone. By comparing it to something so bright and clean as white though, the speaker intensifies the image. He also begins with a statement no one can disagree with. Snow is white so his mistress’ breasts must be the ugly shade of dun. He nearly completes his picture bye adding hair; “If her hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” Shakespeare uses the word wires because they are thick, rough, and never flow like hair usually does. In Shakespeare’s time, women who had blonde, soft hair, blue shining eyes, pale skin, and deep red lips were the ones thought to be the most gorgeous. In these four lines alone he has created a creature opposite to the traditionally beautiful and stunning woman.
In the first two lines of the second quatrain, he elaborates on what he has already formed; “I have seen roses damasked red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks.” He uses roses because they are the flowers with the most elegance and contain the most intense hues of reds, pinks, and even whites. He also compares her cheeks to these particular flowers because they are some of the most recognized flowers of all. The author then triggers another sense, the sense of smell by saying, “And in some perfumes is there more delight, Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” He uses reeking to describe the breath flowing from her body. This makes it seem almost as if the smell were so bad, it could be toxic. By giving the reader something more than an image the speaker begins to create not only the body of a hideous woman, but the atmosphere of her as well.
In the fourth quatrain, he completes the entire image and aura of the dreadful woman that is his mistress. He uses the sense of hearing and then gives a picture of her in motion. He first says of her voice, “I love to hear her speak, yet I know, That music hath a far more pleasing sound.” Although he insults her voice, it is not in such a harsh manner. Also, this is the first time that the author of the poem has admitted to loving the woman he has been describing. He then says of her movement, “I grant I never saw a goddess go, My mistress, when she walks, treads on ground.” This is similar to the statements made in the first quatrain, emphasizing that she is only average. The comparison to something so holy and beautiful as a goddess also makes the mistress seem even duller.
The speaker had now finished creating a terrible and revolting atmosphere of a woman. However, it seems that he ignores the awful deion he has just given in the couplet at the end of the poem. He states, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love is rare, As any she, belied with false compare.” In using the validation from heaven he seems to be saying that the love he feels for this woman is greater than any that could exist on earth. In his final statement, he says that the rarest of women are those who may appear ugly on the outside, but are more beautiful than anything on the inside.
Because of the time period that this was written in, this poem could be thought of as a parody. It is nothing like the other love poems written at the time and does not even go by the same standards of beauty as most people did during Shakespeare’s time. This poem is also unique because of the bizarre word choice. This quality, however, makes the image more intense and the picture that is painted in the reader’s mind very vivid. The use of not only images but also other qualities to describe the mistress gives the poem an interesting mood and leaves the reader with an illustration and deeper meaning they will not soon forget