Detailed Summary of Sonnet 130

1. Ms. S. Savitha Velmani,
Assistant Professor,
Department of English (SF),
V.V.Vanniaperumal College for Women, Virudhunagar
SONNET 130
William Shakespeare

2. “He was not of an age,
but for all time!”
Ben Johnson

3. William Shakespeare
• English playwright , poet and actor
• The greatest writer in the English language
• The world’s pre-eminent dramatist
• he penned 154 Sonnets , two long narrative
poems and a few other minor poems

4. Shakespearean Sonnet
• composed of 14 lines
• divided into three quatrains
• concluding couplet
• Rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef gg
• ‘English’ sonnet

5. My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the
sun
• Sonnet 130- Inverted Love poem
• Realistically
• Unfavorably Compares his Mistress to a series
of beautiful things

6. Quatrain 1
• opens the poem with the description of his mistress
• Sun is bright and beautiful - Ordinary eyes
• Redness of Coral - Redness of his Mistress's Cheek and lips
• Whiteness of Snow - His Mistress's Breast not qualify for such
whiteness
• Mistress head is covered with wires
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.

7. Quatrain 2
• Comparing her to roses and perfumes
• Never seen roses in his mistress cheeks
• pleasure in the smell of perfumes - Mistress breath is of lesser
degree in comparison
I have seen roses damasked, 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.

8. Quatrain 3
• Loves to listen to her talk - Music sounds better
• Never seen a Goddess move - Mistress moves like an ordinary
person
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.

9. Couplet
• the Woman he loves is as Unique, as Beautiful, as
Special
• Loves her for what the reality is and not because he can
compare her to beautiful things
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

10. Escape from Idealism
• free poetry from the ideal form of description
• all the other sonneteers - elaborated analogies to
describe their beloveds
• all of these descriptions used to exaggerated - no
way near reality
• the speaker mocks this attitude
• the fact that it is not humanly possible to reach
that level