When you think of William Shakespeare and love, sonnet 18, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" (890) is most likely the first poem to enter your mind. It is considered such a romantic sonnet even though most people tend to ignore line seven in which he mentions "his gold complexion" which informs the reader that the subject of the poem is male. So it is a bit surprising when you come across Shakespeare's later work in sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (891). When you first read this poem, you are surprised by the imagery found throughout the poem that conjures images of ugliness, in which the mistress is being insulted, rather then compared to beauty and strength as the man was in sonnet 18. However, both poems are indeed about love. So, is Shakespeare being a hypocrite to his earlier works, or is he asking you to see the truth in people? Perhaps he thinks that as mere mortals we are more likely to be compared to having dull eyes, dun skin, wires for hair, and breath that reeks, then to being "more lovely and more delightful" (890) than a summer's day? Most poems are short, and when authors only have a few lines to convey their thoughts, it is important to choose their words carefully. I believe that Hulme said it best when he stated, "Images in verse are not mere decoration, but the very essence of an intuitive language" (776). Therefore, we know that Shakespeare chose his words very carefully in this poem in order to tell us what his mistress was really like, and just exactly how he felt about her.
             Shakespeare meticulously selected his words in order to create the image of his mistress in your mind. Some of these images have such a powerful affect on that vision of the mistress, such as when he states, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (line 1). By saying that her eyes have nothing in common with...