Critque of William Shakespeare Sonnet 130
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, sonnets were the most popular form of circulating poetry, and thus William Shakespeare (1564-1616) composes his own lengthy sonnet cycle, concentrating only on a handful of themes. With the traditional, or Italian, style dominating the poetic forum, Shakespeare composes Sonnet 130 a completely novel sonnet, altering the Italian form. Moreover in Sonnet 130, "My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun", Shakespeare mocks the traditional expression of love, yet successfully expresses his own love. Shakespeare modifies the Italian sonnet, with four quatrains and an ending couplet, into what has become known as his own distinctive style of Shakespearean sonnets. But even that is deviated from with Sonnet 130. To begin, the sonnet instantly goes into comparisons of " his mistress" to various natural items of the world, none of which she matches. Her attributes, hair, eyes, lips, breasts, are all made with brutal comparison to a physical, or even more accurately, tangible aspect of the world, and the evaluation is less than promising. The opening line introduces the harsh reality that the woman's "eyes are nothing like the sun," immediately asserting the inferiority of the woman. The
A sonneteer, like Shakespeare, describes women who meet all the standard criteria of beauty but in each case his own mistress falls short. Interaction with the woman is further elucidated, and the possibility of this sonnet being about a mistress of his mind is put at rest with the ending lines of the quatrain, "And in some perfumes is there more delight / Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. " Here lies the ironic finale of the poem, leading into the reason, true love, and the underlying sentiment for this piece of writing. The next quatrain progresses from simple comparisons revealing her faults the author's first-hand experiences of beauty, making the assessments even more personal. " The line reads like a confession of Shakespeare's inexperience with beautiful, supple women. Gaining credibility once again, Shakespeare refers to "by heaven," in coordination with the corresponding conjunctions "And yet," to mark the change in tone and theme. Instead, simply knowing her faults and loving her despite them is the message that Shakespeare expresses. In his mockery of the traditional blazon, however, he concludes the poem with his love more rare than any false comparisons to women unworthy of such praise. supple, shapely, snow-white image of the female bosom is also completely torn away with the rhetorical, "why then her breasts are dun," even gathering credibility with the known truth of "snow [being] white. In order to profess your love, you need not lionize a woman's attributes. The theme of the sonnet, consistent with most, embraces love, but love with a twist. The fluidity of the poem, in part the deflation of his own mistress through the elevated and idealistic comparisons, Shakespeare can convey his deep and confiding love more faithfully and honestly than poets who use hyperbole. Traditional English verse is most accurately represented by iambic pentameter, and so by making this the metrical scheme, not only are the comparisons mundane, but also the speech pattern represents vernacular talk. " Uncharacteristic of the poem so far where the author describes tangible thing, he now refers to a goddess in that he has never witnessed " a goddess striding upon the ground.
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