Poetry Analysis

1. Shakespeare ‘Sonnets’ No. 130
This sonnet is one of the 154 poems in sonnet form that William Shakespeare wrote. Almost all the poems were first published in 1609 in a book called Shakespeares sonnets: Never before imprinted.
Sonnet 130 is part of the Mistress sequence (sonnets 127 to 152), also called the Dark Lady sequence because of the description of this lady as someone with black hairand dark skin. These sonnets are characterized by the overtly sexual love that the poet feels for this woman. They are also full of satire; and especially this one —written in a humorous tone— mocks the conventional love poems of Shakespeare times, in which the beloved is portrayed as someone beautiful and perfect.
In this sonnet there is a realistic description of his Mistress. She was not aflawless goddess; she was human, was not perfect and it is her naturalness what makes her lovely.
In traditional sonnets is it very important to highlight of the beauty of the beloved, saying that she is as beautiful as things found in nature. For example in Petrarch’s poetry his beloved, Laura, was idealized as a goddess. This kind of sonnet was made popular in England by Philip Sidney, who wrotehis epic poem Astrophel and Stella using the Petrarchan form.
However Shakespeare does not compare her features to beautiful things such as the sun, roses or music saying that she is more beautiful than all those things. These items are coupled with a negative, all these things are far better than his lady’s eyes, cheeks or voice:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far morered than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Here the poet is clearly admitting that his mistress is not the kind of woman that was considered attractive in his times. Her eyes are not shiny and beautiful, her lips are not red, her skin is not pale and her hair is not golden, but black.

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.

Again he mentions beautiful things from nature and compares them to his lady’s features. At first it seems that he is being too honest, or even trying to insult her but it is not bad to say that someone lips are not as red as coral. The poet isjust being realistic; the conventional poetry’s beloved with snowy skin and golden hair does not exist. There is no human with those features and Shakespeare is just describing his Mistress the way she really is, without idealizing her.

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;

In this tercet it is possible to seefor the first time the poet’s admiration for his Mistress: even knowing that the sound of music is much better than her voice he loves to hear her speak. With these verses the whole poem changes its meaning, and now it is certain that he was not insulting her. For example, he loves her cheeks even if they are not like roses. She is not a goddess, and she walks on the ground, like all humans do: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.

The two last verses make clear the theme of the sonnet: a very strong love just like the one expressed in the poems of Petrarch and Sidney. He does not say beautiful things about his beloved, but he loves her. Maybe his love is even stronger than the one thatthe other poets felt, because he does not love an idealized image of his beloved, but her real appearance. In most of the love poems the beloved is unobtainable and the desires are never actually fulfilled, but in this one the Mistress seems more achievable, because she is described as a real woman.

2. Philip Sidney, extracts from ‘Astrophil and Stella’

This collection of 108 sonnets and...