Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Sonnet 130
I thought Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare to be a sarcastic poem based on the falsity of love and the superficial image. Shakespeare addresses the cliches in declarations of love with how he discusses the beautiful qualities such as the whiteness of snow and the red of coral and how his lover does not match these. Her breats are of dun and her cheeks lack the beauty of both red and white roses. Our author's lady does not hold the vibrancy and compelling aspect of the sun in her eyes and her breath "reeks" compared to the delight of some perfumes. This poem addresses the absurdity of lover's opinions on their partners, how they will decorate their partners with the perfections of fantasies when they in no way can compare. Yet despite the false images which lover's create they still desire their partner and believe they are completely intrigued with them. This poem most certainly brings to discussion the power of love and its control of one's entire being. or is Shakespeare addressing the issues which inevitably come with romantic feelings, such as loss of them? what is one to do once the *magic* of new love has faded and no longer is the couple seeing eachother in an enhanced way by raging hormones, is it still called love then?
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3 comments:
I agree that the poem is a poem where Shakespeare is mocking either other writers or people of his time in how they describe either their love for their lover or the appearance of their lover. I feel Shakespeare is showing that he does infact love his mistress with the last two lines of the poem, "And yet by heaven I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare." The word yet, is important because it shows the transition where before he is saying how his mistress is not as beautiful as other mistresses and I think the last two lines is Shakespeare saying that he loves her anyways. I read a good review of this poem online which I agreed with where the review said: "This is a poem written by a man that has learned to love with his heart and not his eyes."
I agree with you and would just like to add a little insight. While reading the poem I thought that maybe the woman the speaker describes is black. Her breasts are dark, as are her eyes. Also, her hair is described as "black wires." She lacks the color in her cheeks that would be visible in most white women. Therefore I came to the conclusion that the speaker is describing a black women.
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