Analysis Of Sonnet 130

William Shakespeare was a poet and playwright, who did not earn his reputation as “an immensely stylish and accomplished poet” until his narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrence, which his reputation elevated even more “by [a] manuscript circulation of his sonnets” (Shakespeare 1170). In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 or “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is a poem that is part of a group of sonnets that “focus chiefly on the so-called Dark Lady as an alluring but degrading object of desire” (Shakespeare 1170). Sonnet 130 can be identified as a Shakespearean or English sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg thus breaking the sonnet into three quatrains and one couplet. It is written in of iambic pentameter which consists of 5 stressed and 5 unstressed syllables. The sonnet is written in first person point of view and the persona or speaker is a man. Shakespeare takes a different approach in his sonnet of how women are usually portrayed in other works. In this particular sonnet Shakespeare does a twist to the traditional love sonnet. Instead of praising the beauty of a woman he does the exact opposite. Throughout the poem, the persona does not make exaggerated comparisons about his …show more content…
He describes her as not having red lips, skin not white as snow, and she was not a graceful goddess instead, her hair resembles black wires, her eyes are not like sun, and her skin is a dull grayish-brown color. Shakespeare makes the mistress more human and relatable. He does not have the persona make exaggerated comparisons about his mistress. She has flaws just like any other human being. At the end of the poem, the persona says that his love would be extraordinary as any women that has been misrepresented by exaggerated