Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

Page 296

Questions for thought

• Who is considered an “ideal beauty” in our culture?

• What made a woman an “ideal beauty” in Shakespeare’s time?

Sonnet 130

• The speaker’s situation– The speaker is describing a woman he cares

about. He is very realistic about her looks—she does not fit the expectations of an ideal beauty in Renaissance England.

Sonnet 130—poetic devices

• The speaker uses imagery to describe the woman he loves.

• Each line (or pair of lines) contains a different image.

• “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”

• Paraphrase:

• My mistress’ eyes are not bright and warm and life-giving, like the sun—rather, they are dull and expressionless.

• “Coral is far more red than her lips’ red.”

• Paraphrase:

• Her lips are not bright red like coral—they are more of a dull flesh-color.

“red sea fan coral spreads behind a golden damselfish in waters off Fiji”• From the National Geographic website:

From ivoryscrimshaw.com, which sells red coral jewelry

• “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.”

• Paraphrase:

• Her skin is brownish, not fair and white like snow.

• “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.”

• Paraphase:

• Her hair is not golden and silky—it is dark, and thick and stiff like wire.

• “I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, / but no such roses see I in her cheeks.”

• Paraphrase:

• I have seen roses in real life—flowers of red and white—but her cheeks do not have the bloom of roses.

• “and in some perfumes is there more delight / than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.”

• Paraphrase:

• Perfume smells better than her breath does.

• “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / that music hath a far more pleasing sound.”

• Paraphrase:

• I love to talk to her and listen to her, but her voice is not as pleasing and smooth as music.

• “I grant I never saw a goddess go, / my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.”

• Paraphrase:• I’ve admit I’ve never seen a goddess who floats

above the ground, but I know that my mistress plants her feet firmly on the ground when she walks—she’s not very graceful.

• “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / as any she belied with false compare.”

• Paraphase:

• Despite all this, I think the woman I love is just as special / as any other woman who is lied about with false comparisons in other poems.

Images/reverse comparisons in sonnet 130

• Line 1: eyes not like the sun• Line 2: lips not like red coral• Line 3: skin not as white as snow• Line 4: hair like black wires• Lines 5-6: cheeks not like beautiful roses• Lines 7-8: breath not like perfume• Lines 9-10: voice not like music• Lines 11-12: walking not graceful like a goddess

Main idea

• A woman can be loved and special without being an ideal beauty.

• Many poems idealizing a woman’s beauty are exaggerated and false.