Shakespeare - Sonnet CXXX - Analysis & Summary

About Author - 

Shakespeare was born in 1564. A name which is doesn't need an introduction to the world of English Literature. He left Avon for London and there became an actor, and then a playwriter.

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets & 38 plays. Sonnets 1-126 are part of the Fair Youth Sequence. These sonnets are said to be devoted to a young beautiful man whose identity is unknown. 

The Theme Of The Sonnet- 

Unlike Spenser and Wyatt, Shakespeare doesn't follow the Petrarchan form of a sonnet (8+6 lines), but instead, his sonnets are made up of 3 quatrains of four lines and a couplet in the end. The brief couplet does not allow for sustained argument but lends itself to an epigrammatic, witty, or paradoxical assertion to counterbalance the previous 3 quatrains.

Sonnet CXX-

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 

    

    In the first quatrain, the poet asserts that her mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. They are not bright and joyful. Even corals (Which are mostly whitish in color) are far redder than her lips. Her breasts are dun in color (dull grayish brown) like the white and dull snow. And if hairs can be wires then the poet is sure that her mistress' head is full of black wires and not silky smooth hair.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

 

In the second quatrain, the poet says that he has seen damask (an embroidered fabric) that were red and white like roses, but there are no such roses and there is no such redness in her cheeks, While the poet has smelt delightful perfumes, His mistress' breath is not aromatic like that, but instead it reeks and more on the unpleasant side.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

  

The poet yet loves to hear his mistress speak but he knows that music has a more soft and melodious sound. The poet grants and admits that he has never seen a goddess walk but he is certain that his mistress' walk is nothing like that and when she walks, she treads on the ground.

   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

   As any she belied with false compare.

Shakespeare concludes his sonnet with a couplet providing a witty end. After pointing out all the flaws and negative shades in her mistress, he swears by heavens that his love is as rare as any of those poem female characters and muses whose beauty is belied with false comparison. Shakespeare attacks all the contemporary romance poets in a witty way by saying that they all use extravagant comparisons to beautify their poetic heroine.