The Rare Love in William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130
In "Sonnet 130," William Shakespeare speaks about rare love. A love that no other feels. One does not see this as the case, when reading the first twelve lines of this poem. The persona describes all the faults of his beloved, starting at her eyes, and ending at her breath. He uses comparisons like snow, coral, and roses to describe what his beloved lacks. Later on in the poem, one realizes that the flaws and imperfections of his mistress is not at all important to the narrator. Despite the fact that she is not what society would call a "perfect woman," the narrator still loves his rare mistress because he perceives her as a human being. Shakespeare is offereing more in this poem than merely playing upon the traditional use of a blason, which looks to describe the parts of a woman's body in grand terms. The narrator denies all the exaggerated comparisons, like the ones that are usually expected in a sonnet, like eyes to sun, lips to coral, hair to black wire, cheeks to roses, breath to perfume, voice to music and finally woman to a goddess who does not touch the earth. He is not falsely comparing her to inanimate objects: women are not like coral, roses or snow. People were not created in the image of perfection, so thier characte
rs cannot be compared to nature. One example of the ironic changes he makes occurs in the line "hair of black wires." We are therefore forced to ask ourselves, what this different kind of portrayal reveals to us. Is this mistress ugly and unworthy of any love? I think that it is the opposite case. Shakespeare does not try to display the mistress as ugly, yet simply as quite human. Unlike other poems and sonnets, this mistress is not described as a goddess with golden hair, stunning eyes and the body of a beauty queen, but rather as a "real" woman. Sonnets are usually about intense love and deep beauty. Usually the poets descibe how wonderful their mistresses are, yet Shakespeare takes this sonnet to another level. It seems that the mistress is very down-to-earth in comparison to other women in poems. This trait may be what provides the stimulus for the narrator's love. One could conclude that other poets were never in love with the women they were portraying, because they never descibed the true mortal characteristics of the female, as Shakespeare did. They only discuss the short-lived qualities of a woman, that fade after years. As the quote says: "Beauty is only skin deep," I think Shakespeare g
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Approximate Word count = 811
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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