Showing posts with label Sonnet 130. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonnet 130. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Shakespeare Sonnet 130 "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
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;
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
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.

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I think this sonnet can be studied in comparison to other courtship/love poems about mistresses. It'll offer a good contrast.