Download pptx - Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare An unconventional love poem about the “Dark Lady”

Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

An unconventional love poem about the “Dark Lady”

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A sonnet has 14 lines

The first 12 lines are 3 quatrains

Groups of 4 lines

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.

rhyme schemeABAB

With aclosing couplet

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare. Sums things up!


In a conventional love poem the writer would exaggerate how beautiful his mistress is:

My mistress' eyes are more fantastic than the sun;

But in his unconventional love poem Shakespeare underplays how beautiful his mistress is:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

He has turned around the convention of exaggerated praise


He carries on with the unconventional approach in the next lines

Coral is far more red than her lips' red

Pink-orange colourConventional

desirable featureHer lips aren't red

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun

Grey brown colourThe conventionalSomething of a cliche

Is he saying she is not beautiful or is he saying

she is beautiful in a different way?


In the next lines he moves on to describe other physical features

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

Gold wires were used in head-dress and

compared to golden hair

Blondes were more highly rated

So she is not conventionally

beautiful

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white

mixed

But she doesn’t have this complexion

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;


The author moves from how she looks to how she smells

And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

Smells- the word didn’t have a

negative meaning in Shakespeare’s time

He’s not saying the smell of her breath is unpleasant -

just that perfume smells sweeter

In conventional love poems you would say her breath was

sweeter than perfumeBut Shakespeare takes anunconventional approach


The next feature is the sound of her voice

I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;

He’s not being critical of her voice: all he’s saying is that musichas a more pleasing sound

In the conventional love poem the writer

would say that her voicewas sweeter than music


The poet describes how his mistress walks

I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

I admitto you

I’ve never seena goddess walk

My mistress walks like anyone else, on the ground, rather than floating through the air

He’s stressing his mistress is no goddess.In a conventional love poem she would be

described as a goddess


So does the poet think that his mistress is beautiful or what?

The last 2 lines tell us

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare.

exceptional

Direct statement, telling us what he thinks

For emphasis

She is as beautiful as any woman who is praised

with false comparisons

The poet thinks she’s beautiful but doesn’t want

to describe her in a cliched way.