In the tropical waters in Asia, coral vary in colour and texture. This theme is carried on in the sonnet, embedded in the play of words to emphasize how human love is flawed but still very much beautiful.Ī key element in Sonnet 130 that appeals to me as a reader is the historical information gleaned from a close reading. Similarly, love is deceptive at first but is revealed over time to be humanely imperfect, unlike its initial goddess-like image. It shows the possibility that at first glance, a woman may be perceived as possessing such beautiful traits. This witty choice of words may be misread by the reader who is flippant in the reading of the text, without noting how such words are used for contrast rather than description. Words like “eyes”, “sun”, “red”, “lips”, “roses”, “cheeks” and “delight” are chosen by Shakespeare to describe the “dark lady”. The choice of words employed by Shakespeare are that which are common in the lexical field of words used for Partrachan love poetry that glorify a lover’s external appearances to a level of almost goddess-like beauty. The first eight lines, the octet, are written in a way that a cursory glance at the words would give the reader a misreading of the intended meaning. This provides the reader with an auditory tempo that draws out the essence of the embedded message, which seeks to convey that “miss eyes no like sun” in a concise form.Ī close reading of the sonnet reveals Shakespeare’s skill in crafting a precise sonnet within structural confines of an octet, a sestet and a pair of rhyming couplets. For example, “my MIS/tress EYES/ are NO/thing LIKE/ the SUN/” highlights the key words that Shakespeare would like to stress when read with this beat and word stress. The emphasis on criticism is strengthened with the use of iambic pentameter. All the twelve lines do not praise or idealize the beauty of the physical features of his lover, but on the contrary, criticize her physical features by revealing the shortcomings in them by contrasting her physical features with their respective idealised poetic versions. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is interesting because it works by inverting the traditions of the blazon form and the conventions of Petrarchan love poetry which idealized the description of the female body. A typical blazon of a person would start with the hair and work downward, focusing on eyes, ears, lips, neck, bosom and so on. It presents a detailed summary of all of the main features and colors of an illustration. Sonnet 130 is the only Shakespearean sonnet which models a form of poetry called the blazon, popular in the 16th century used to describe heraldry. This enlarges the range of rhyme sounds and words the poet can use and allows the poet to combine the sonnet lines in rhetorically more complex ways. The Shakespearean sonnet affords two additional rhyme endings (a-g, 7 in all) so that each rhyme is heard only once.
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My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.Īnd yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareįigure1 : Sonnet 130, Shake-speare’s Sonnets, A.D1607 That music hath a far more pleasing sound I love to hear her speak, yet will I know
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Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks
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I have seen roses, damasked, red and white,Īnd in some perfumes is there more delight If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Ĭoral is far more red than her lips’ red Overall, it is presented as three differently rhymed quatrains and a concluding couplet. Thus, Shakespeare followed the more idiomatic rhyme scheme which interlaces a rhyming pair of couplets to make a quatrain.
#Sonnet 130 meaning series#
However, in English, the scheme can sound contrived and monotonous, particularly in a series of sonnets on the same theme. This condensed five rhyme palette (a-e) creates a sonorous music in the vowel rich Romance languages.