William Shakespeare, one of the most celebrated sonneteers in history, has written many magical and fantastic sonnets that have stressed iambic pentameter, rhyme scheme, metaphors, couplets and quatrains, as well as interesting themes. Sonnets are found to have various different forms according to how many syllables are in each line, how many lines are grouped into a unit, and what rhyme scheme is followed. Therefore, I have chosen William Shakespeare's sonnet, "My Mistress' Eyes are nothing Like the Sun" to analyze because of the uniqueness and challenge that was found when researching and explicating the Shakespearian sonnet.

The great majority of 16th-century sonnets were written to explore unrequited romantic love and adoration (Encarta 1998). In "My Mistress' Eyes are nothing Like the Sun", the mistress' lover is comparing her simple features and attributes to the beauty of nature; obviously the mistress does not possess beauty. In the beginning, the mistress' eyes are being compared to the sun suggesting that her eyes are not light or lustrous but dull and homely. Shakespeare even compares her 'dun' breasts to that of white and pure snow, possibly hinting at a deeper meanin

g into the usage of the color white. Snow is white, representing a meaning of purity and virginity. But the use of the word "dun" suggests that she is not as pure and virginal as he would like her to be. We also find from Shakespeare that the mistress' face apparently does not even possess a healthy and heavenly glow. This simple mistress is also not a goddess, but very real and alive to her lover. He loves her in spite of h!

er faults and imperfections, even making appearances and reality a major theme in this sonnet. This sonnet, as well as the structure and usage, gives us an interesting insight into the perceptions and expressions of unconditional love.

In review, In "My Mistress' Eyes are nothing Like the Sun", the mistress' lover has compared her features to that of nature, contrasting how plain and pale she is to nature's beauty. The mistress' lover adores her in spite of her faults and imperfections. The sonnet also possesses fourteen lines grouped into three quatrains, an iambic pentameter of seven, eight, nine or ten syllables per line with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, rhyme scheme of ABAB and so on, brazon, and an interesting theme of reality and appearance. This sonnet even consists of a quatrain followed by a couplet. Upon my research, I have found that this sonnet, gives us an interesting insight into the perceptions and expressions of unconditional love as well as the basic sonnet structure and word usage.

"My Mistress's Eyes are nothing Like the S

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Approximate Word count = 1012
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)