Shakespeare 130th Sonnet Analysis

Sonnets are rhymed poems consisting of fourteen lines, it is divided into two different lines, the first eight lines making up the octet and the other last six lines being the sestet. The Shakespearean sonnet however differs from the Petrarchian sonnets and the Spenserian sonnet, it ends with a rhymed couplet and follows the rhyme scheme. Therefore, the octet and sestet structure can be unconventionally divided into three quatrains with alternating rhymes concluding in a rhymed couplet. Till present day, over more than one hundred fifty of Shakespeare's sonnets is still debated and very much well-known throughout English literature. Shakespeare's poetic genius' is very evident throughout many of his poems, it is his superior skill of using different elements of poetic technique that he make use of in trying to convey the message in his poems that makes his poetry not only significantly beautiful but also meaningful.

William Shakespeare's one hundred and thirtieth Sonnet, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" narrates a story on the subject of love. Shakespeare's main theme in the poem is none other but to emphasize the deeper meaning of love, love is much more important and meaningful than just the attraction of an individual's external appearance; love should come from the heart. In the poem itself, Shakespeare was able to portray this theme through comparing a women who is not physically perfect to beautiful matters. Regardless of his mistress's not so attractive appearance Shakespeare is still captivated by her, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare, line 13." Ultimately Shakespeare was able to develop the meaning within a poem through the usage of selective diction, the specific rhyme scheme, and lastly the structure of the poem.

First of all, Shakespeare's used of selective language is the reason why the poem is so significant, it helped the readers understand the overall mood of the poem and it also helped them to create an image in their minds. For instance, the usage of the word "wires" and "roses", Shakespeare compared wires to his mistress' hairs, "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head", wires is stiff, rough, and inflexible, it is exactly the opposite to "beautiful" hairs, and logically it is clear to see that Shakespeare is trying to tell us that his mistress' has unpleasant-looking hair and she is unattractive. In addition, Shakespeare's usage of the word "roses" in comparison to his mistress' cheeks also create a similar effect, roses are beautiful, pleasant to sight, and is soft, by using these affects Shakespeare simply attempts to once again heightens the subject, simply by saying that his mistress' cheeks are not soft, and is not beautiful compared to that of a rose. Thus, you can see how Shakespeare's choice of diction was able connect up several different images and was able to gave the readers some type of ill-feeling towards the subject. In addition, "I grant I never saw a goddess go; my mistress when she walks treads on the ground." this in my opinion is very important to understanding the overall meaning of the poem, there is simply two major important implications that Shakespeare has engage here. First of all is the fact that he is comparing his mistress' as a goddess and secondly it suggests the reader that his mistress is completely human. When we imagine a goddess, we imagine perfect beauty, beautiful to that no human can match, yet after Shakespeare compared his mistress' to a goddess he suddenly says that his mistress is not only human, but she also makes human errors, this is very unlike "goddess" manner. Therefore, one can conclude that Shakespeare is in fact implying that there is more to goddess than physical beauty, maybe some of the less-obvious matter in a person such as their manners, and characteristics is in fact what determines a "goddess". Bottom line, Shakespeare is simply trying to declare that love does not come from a person's outside feature nonetheless true beauty comes from the inside, you should not be shallow.

Second of all, the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. In general, rhyming scheme is very crucial in any piece of sonnet poetry. The rhyming scheme of "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" is a-b-a-b-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g, in addition the rhyming scheme is well structured, seemingly and sounding fluent plus flowing. In my opinion, the rhyming scheme of a poem helps the reader understand and interpret a poem correctly in terms of the writer's intention. In "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" the rhyming scheme helped the readers visualize a form of argumentation in the poem, a series of constant verbal interactions that is contradicting each other's opinion. The most important and most crucial to understand is the usage of the "heroic couplet", which are lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs ( for example, aa, bb, cc). In "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sum" the heroic couplet is in fact the last two line, to be precise, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love