STYLE

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/ Nor shall Death brag - personification, human
characteristics among inanimate objects
“thy eternal summer/ when in etrnal lines to time thou growest”- as peak of smn’s life/loveliness-
metaphor-a direct comparison
Hyperbole-an exaggeration of an idea- it is deemed that the whole sonnet is an expression of
exaggeration
Alliteration: So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Repetition: so long/ fair

RHYME SCHEME:ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

METER AND LENGTH: iambic pentameter

MOTIFS:

1. Art vs time: through art, nature and beauty overcome time. The sonnet uses the season to
symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything in nature –from plants to
people- is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in
their verse.
 SONNET 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red; Coral is far more red than her lips;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If snow is white, then her breasts are a
brownish gray;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. If hairs are like wires, hers are black and not
golden.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, I have seen damask roses, red and white
[streaked],
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; But I do not see such colors in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight And some perfumes give more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. Than the horrid breath of my mistress.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know I love to hear her speak, but I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; That music has a more pleasing sound.
I grant I never saw a goddess go; I've never seen a goddess walk;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the But I know that my mistress walks only on the
ground: ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare And yet I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare. As any woman who has been misrepresented
by ridiculous comparisons.
The rhetorical structure of Sonnet 130 is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, the speaker
spends one line on each comparison between his mistress and something else (the sun, coral,
snow, and wires—the one positive thing in the whole poem some part of his mistress is like. In
the second and third quatrains, he expands the descriptions to occupy two lines each, so that
roses/cheeks, perfume/breath, music/voice, and goddess/mistress each receive a pair of
unrhymed lines. When Shakespeare was writing this sonnet it was all the rage to compare a
lover's eyes to the sun and sunlight - Shakespeare completely negates this, using the phrase
'nothing like' to emphasise the fact that this female's eyes are not bright. They were, according to
a line in sonnet 127, raven black.

THEMES

Love
To put it simply, the theme is that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".'Sonnet 130'
takes the love poem to a deeper, more intimate level where looks are no longer important and it
is inner beauty that matters. Shakespeare paints this picture using a wonderful Combination of
metaphors and a simile.
For, the speaker loves his mistress just as much as the others love their beauties
because beauty is subjective. The subject matter of the poem is, simply, the speaker's mistress
and the speaker's love for her. Most sonnets are written about love, but they often make use of
unrealistic comparisons meant to flatter the subject and beautify the writing. A typical sonnet,
then, would never discuss a woman's lack of rosy cheeks, her bad breath, or the dullness of her
skin. This poem, and this speaker, however, are quite different.
The speaker does not draw implausible comparisons meant to flatter a lover. In fact, he
specifically says that she cannot compare favorably to the sun, coral, snow, or roses. But this is
what makes this poem special: he thinks his love is as rare and special as any in which these
comparisons are used to describe the lover's beauty. The speaker doesn't need to idealize his
lover. This leads us to the theme that true love doesn't require false comparisons; it is enough to
stand on its own.

Appearances
is a major theme in Sonnet 130, since our speaker spends a lot of the poem talking about what's
wrong with his mistress's looks. He does a pretty complete dissection of her face, her body, and
her smell. He doesn't say anything at all about her personality, but instead sticks to his laundry
list of problems with her appearance.

In Sonnet 130, the theme "Women and Femininity" is connected to the idea of appearances.
This poem is all about female beauty and our expectations and stereotypes about the way women
ought to look. Essentially, the speaker in this poem is pointing out that love poetry does the same
thing. It makes women into goddesses, not real human beings. He insists that his idea of
beautiful femininity doesn't depend on fitting an abstract, unrealistic fantasy. Whereas
conventional love sonnets by other poets make their women into goddesses, in Sonnet 130 the
poet is merely amused by his own attempt to deify his dark mistress. Cynically he states, "I grant
I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground."

Analysis

PARODY: A parody imitates the work of another author, usually with the intention of ridiculing
it. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is a parody of a form poetry which was popular in Elizabethan
England. The Petrarchan love sonnet, in which a poet compared his lover to natural beauties, was
named after the fourteenth-century Italian poet who wrote a series of love sonnets for his
beloved.In S130 he chooses to make fun of it.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” is thematically
an anti-Petrarchan sonnet, that satirizes the conventions of the traditional Italian sonnet by
inverting the similes normally used within the Petrarchan conventions. Its subject is the beauties
of his mistress, but unlike the Italianate poets who would say her lips are like coral and her
breasts like snow, uses a sort of via negativa, saying that such comparisons would be false, in
order to evoke in the reader’s mind the real beauties of an actual woman. The final couplet
makes obvious that he really is praising rather than denigrating his mistress.

FORM
Sonnet 130 is a Shakespearean sonnet of 14 lines made up of 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet,
which binds everything together and draws a conclusion to what has gone before.

The rhyme scheme is typical: abab cdcd efef gg and all the end rhymes are full, for
example white/delight and rare/compare.

Metre (meter in American English)

The dominant metre is iambic pentameter, five iambic feet per line, non-stressed syllable
followed by a stressed in daDUM daDUM fashion. However, there are lines which differ from
this steady, plodding beat.

Let's look at the whole sonnet:

My mis / tress' eyes / are noth / ing 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 ro / ses dam / asked, red / and white,
But no / such ro / ses see / I in / her cheeks;
And in / some per / fumes is / there more / delight
Than in / the breath / that from / my mis / tress reeks.
I love / to hear / her speak, / yet well / I know
That mu / sic hath / a far / more plea / sing sound;
I grant / I nev / er saw / a god / dess go;
My mis / tress, when / she walks, / treads on / the ground.
And yet, / by heaven, / I think / my love / as rare
As an / y she / belied / with false / compare.

Iambic pentameter dominates this sonnet and there are a total of 10 purely iambic lines :
1,6,7,8,9,10,11,13 and 14.

Of these, lines 1,6,7,8,10,11 and 14 are unpunctuated, allowing the rhythm to flow.

Line 2 begins with an inverted iambic foot - a trochee - with the stress on the first syllable, which
alters the flow somewhat before the iambic beat takes over.
Line 3 is ambiguous. Some scan it as purely iambic, others find an inverted iamb - a trochee -
after the comma: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.

Line 4 is also not straightforward. There are a possible two trochees after the comma:
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Line 5 begins with an inverted iamb - a trochee - placing emphasis on the first person I.

Line 12 begins with a strong spondee - two stressed syllables - which reinforces the personal
again.

LITERARY DEVICES

Sonnet 130 contains several literary devices that enhance the texture of the sound and reinforce
certain tropes. For example:

Alliteration

When words beginning with the same consonants are close together in a phrase or line, as in
lines:

1 - My mistress

3 - white, why

4 - wires, black wires

5 - roses damasked, red

6 - such roses see

8 - Than in the breath that

9 - hear her

11 - grant....goddess go

12 - My mistress, when she walks

Assonance

When the same or similar vowels in words are close together in a line or phrase, as in lines:

1 - My/eyes/like

2. Coral/more

3 - then/breasts

4.- hairs/her

5 - have/damasked

6 - see/cheeks

7 - in/is/delight

8 - Than/that

9 - hear/speak....yet well

10 - That/hath

13 - yet/heaven

Repetition

Repeating words or phrases strengthens meaning and places special emphasis on them. For
example, the word red occurs twice in the second line, as does wires in the fourth.

Note the use of the phrase far more in lines 2 and 10 which underlines the importance of the
colour red and sound of music, making them stand out from the crowd. The speaker (the poet) is
again implying the ordinariness of his lover's looks and voice.

This sonnet is very much an individual's take on the beauty of their mistress. Written from a first
person perspective, I and My occur 11 times.

SYMBOLS
1. THE MISTRESS: She's definitely the star of this show. Every line refers to her, whether
it's describing her appearance or her smell or the way she walks. We learn a few things
about her, like the color of her hair and her skin. In general, though, she's a little more
like an idea than a real person. Instead of being a fully drawn character
like Hamlet or Juliet, she is mostly here to give the poet a chance to poke fun at
exaggerated love poetry.

 Eyes - Line 1: We start out with the speaker refusing to compare his lover's eyes to the
sun. He picks a really out-there, exaggerated simile so that we can see just how silly this
kind of comparison can be. So really, this is a negative simile: "x is not like y."

 Lips Line 2: Comparing lips to red coral gives us another slightly ridiculous over-the-top
simile. Lips that red would have to be painted, and that's the kind of fake beauty that this
poem is pushing back against.

2. Cheeks- If the ideal woman in Shakespeare's time was supposed to have skin as white as
snow and smooth and blond hair, then her cheeks are probably going to have to be pink
and rosy too.

 Breasts- For obvious reasons, breasts are a classic symbol of female beauty. Line 3: Here
the speaker avoids a direct simile. He just gives us the strong image of sparkling white
snow, and lays it next to the equally strong image of dun (grayish-brown) breasts. He's
playing with our associations with these colors. White is a long-standing symbol of
purity, cleanliness, virginity, and all that Next to that squeaky clean image, the mistress's
breasts seem dirty and polluted. But the speaker will go on to show us that these old
stereotypes might not really mean much at all.

 Voice - Lines 9-10: As always, the speaker rejects the obvious simile ("her voice is like
music"), but this time he's being a little nicer he loves the sound of her voice. He just
thinks that comparing her voice to music is going too far.