Thursday, October 10, 2013

Could you provide a brief appreciation of "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130"?

"Sonnet 130" is a standard Shakespearean sonnet. It contains fourteen total lines, broken into three stanzas of four lines each with a couplet at the end. That is followed by a final couplet. The three quatrains are in an alternating ABAB rhyme scheme, and the final two lines rhyme with each other. That gives the entire sonnet the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Each line of the poem contains ten syllables written in the iambic foot. That means each line of the poem contains five iambic feet. That is called iambic pentameter.  


As a final detail, the couplet of a Shakespearean sonnet usually offers a counter/ rebuttal to the previous twelve lines. That is true for this sonnet as well. Shakespeare goes through twelve lines of poetry describing how his lover's physical qualities are not anywhere close to a societal beauty standard. Her cheeks aren't rosy, her breath stinks, and her voice is awful, but the final couplet says that his love for her is as real and strong as love gets.  

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