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Sonnet 130 Key

This document provides a line-by-line summary of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. The sonnet describes the speaker's mistress in unconventional terms, noting that her eyes are not bright like the sun, her lips are faint in color, her skin is brownish, and her hair is black and wiry. Though he finds more pleasure in perfume and music than her breath and voice, the speaker insists that his love for her is as genuine as the exaggerated love described in other sonnets of the time. The summary analyzes the sonnet's argument that the speaker loves his mistress for who she is rather than exaggerating her beauty with overblown comparisons.

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608 views2 pages

Sonnet 130 Key

This document provides a line-by-line summary of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. The sonnet describes the speaker's mistress in unconventional terms, noting that her eyes are not bright like the sun, her lips are faint in color, her skin is brownish, and her hair is black and wiry. Though he finds more pleasure in perfume and music than her breath and voice, the speaker insists that his love for her is as genuine as the exaggerated love described in other sonnets of the time. The summary analyzes the sonnet's argument that the speaker loves his mistress for who she is rather than exaggerating her beauty with overblown comparisons.

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name: ____________________________________ Period: _______________

English 8 Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeares Sonnet 130


Sonnet 130 Line Summary
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Mistress = my love/my darling/someone he cares
deeply about.
Her eyes arent bright like the sun (playing on the use
of metaphors about nature to criticize traditional
sonnets of the day tone is opposite of sonnet 18)
Dark eyes
Her lips are faint and colorless not bright and red
Coral is far more red than her lips' red; like coral
She doesnt have beautiful white skin its more of a
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; Brownish/gray color
She has black, wiry, frizzy, untamed hair
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. Q1 (Argument/main metaphor): Describes his
mistress using comparisons to nature.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, He has seen roses, striped red and white

But his mistress doesnt have rosy red cheeks


But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

He finds more pleasure smelling nice perfume


And in some perfumes is there more delight

His mistress, she doesnt smell like perfume


Q2 (Example/Argument being built: Describes
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
her average appearance by contradicting the typical
tone of sonnets during the time.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know He likes to talk with her, but he knows

Music sounds better than her voice He finds her


That music hath a far more pleasing sound; voice to be unpleasant in some way
Hes never seen a goddess walk on this earth
I grant I never saw a goddess go; (Goddesses sway and flow in the heavens)
She is no goddess shes a little clunky, walks
heavily, without grace
She walks on the ground like a human being
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
Q3 (Twist): Shakespeare opens this quatrain with
a compliment, but continues to describe his mistress
in an unconventional way.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare And yet, his views his love for her as rare/hard to
find/special
As rare as any other woman that the poets of the
day exaggerate about he doesnt need to exaggerate
his love for her he loves her for who she is, flaws
and all.
As any she belied with false compare.
Couplet (Summary): Shakespeare refuses to
exaggerate the love he has for his mistress by using
over the top descriptions of her beauty. Instead, he
simply loves her for who she is.

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