Sonnet 130 and 31

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 roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

In Shakespeare’s Sonnet number one-hundred and thirty he makes fun of the typical love poem. Even when Shakespeare wrote these Sonnets the metaphors used in love poems were considered cliché, as they still are today, but they were an accepted way to express feelings in love poems. In sonnet one-hundred and thirty the poet writes that his mistress’ eyes are not like the sun, coral is much more red then her lips, compared to white snow her breasts are dun-colored, her hair looks like black wires, her cheeks are not rosy as flowers, her breath reeks compared to perfume, her voice i

In Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella there are many sonnets. Sonnet number thirty one really struck my interest because Astrophil is speaking to the moon and asking why it so sad and about the women up above. Astrophil opens up to the moon about his empty heart in many lines of the thirty first sonnet.

Those metaphors are used in many poems to express the beauty of a woman and the love a poet has for one. But Shakespeare decided to joke about these metaphors and explain that a woman really does not have those qualities. These metaphors compare a woman’s beauty to nature, and when taken literally they are completely ridiculous. Shakespeare is right when he tells the truth and explains that his mistress is not all of those silly things. In the couplet he explains that his mistress is not perfect, and does not have all of those ridiculous qualities, but she does not need them because he loves her and she is beautiful anyway. Shakespeare has a rare love for his mistress and she is beautiful, but not because her lips are the color of coral or because her cheeks are rosy, but because she is who she is!

s not as beautiful as music, and although he has never seen a goddess walk, his mistress probably does not walk like one. In sonnet number one hundred and thirty-one the poet explains that his mistress is not as beautiful as any poetic cliché, but she is b

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