“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

(Sonnet 130)

Adriana MercadoGennesys Pineda

Ana Landeros

“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Paraphrasing the SonnetMy lover’s eyes cannot be compared to the sunEven coral has more color than her lips;Compared to snow, her breasts are insipid;Her hair is as stuff as wire.I have seen roses marked by red and whiteBut her cheeks are plain;And other aromas have a more pleasing smellThan my lover’s bad breath.I love to hear her voice but I know,Music is more enjoyable than the sound of her voice;

Paraphrasing the Sonnet (Cont.)

I have never seen a celestial being walkBut I know my lover tramples

And even when my lover is exceptionalHer appearance may be misrepresented

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• Speaker: A man in love

Occasion: Making fun of the exaggerated metaphors used by other poets

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• Audience: Other poets who write about love

• Purpose: To show how even though a

person has faults, that does not change the

feelings towards that

person

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• Style:Sonnet • 14 lines • Rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef gg• 1 couplet

Tone: Satiric/Contemptuous

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• Rhetorical Devices: Satire Metaphor

• “if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (line 4)

Summary of the Literary Work

In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” Shakespeare ridicules the metaphors and forms of expression that other poets use to refer to the woman they love by conveying that in reality their lover has defects that makes her human, but yet love surpasses those faults.