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Analysis of Sonnet 130


            
             Shakespeare's Sonnets, a collection of one hundred and fifty four poems, are widely considered to be some of the most insightful and powerful poems of all time. Shakespeare, who was one of the first developers of the English sonnet, used the highly rigid form and structure of the poem to create meaning and emphasize the arguments he wanted to make. His use of structure, unique language, archaic words, as well as rhyme and rhythm and numerous other effects, all contributed towards developing the meaning, form and content of the poem. His one hundred and thirtieth sonnet, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, is a poem in which Shakespeare forms an argument against conventions to flatter one's lover with praise of her beauty as well as make comments about the way that love between two people can be expressed and interpreted. .
             This sonnet compares the speaker's beloved to a number of other beauties, and never in the lover's favor. Her eyes are "nothing like the sun," her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. In the second quatrain, the speaker says he has seen roses separated by color, damasked, into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistress's cheeks; and he says the breath that "reeks" from his mistress is less delightful than perfume. In the third quatrain, he admits that, though he loves her voice, music "hath a far more pleasing sound," and that though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress, unlike goddesses, walks heavily on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, "by heaven," he thinks his love as rare and valuable. "As any she belied with false compare", that is any woman who has had poetic untruths told about her beauty with false comparisons.
             My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun is a poem in which Shakespeare forms an argument against conventions to flatter one's lover with praise of her beauty.


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