Shakespeare Mistress Diction

730 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespearean sonnet critical analysis

Love can be expressed in a variety of ways. In this sonnet Shakespeare compares the lady who he calls his mistress with certain things. Shakespeare wrote this sonnet to explain to the reader about his “Mistress” and why he thinks his love is rare for her. Shakespeare used different ways in his poem to explain how his “Mistress” was not the usual but he still loved her in a special way. In quatrain one of the sonnet Shakespeare compares his mistress to several different things and he thinks she is nothing like the things he compares her with. For example, on line one he states “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;”. I think he is saying that her eyes are not as beautiful as the sun but beautiful enough for him. In line …show more content…

During the time Shakespeare was alive it was not civil for a white person to be in love with a colored person, so that is why Shakespeare says that his love is rare. The last line says “As any she belied with false compare”. I think he is saying that any woman who has had untruths told about her beauty she denied with false comparisons. Throughout the sonnet Shakespeare uses a great deal of imagery to give the reader a picture image on how his Mistress’ looks. He compares her features; hair, eyes, cheeks, breast, lips, and complexion to wires, the sun, roses, coral, and snow. He uses a unique way of describing his mistress by comparing her to things that she is not. I think Shakespeare used this way to confuse the reader of how his mistress looks. All in all, Sonnet 130 written by Shakespeare is a very good poem, especially to be written during the time that Shakespeare wrote the poem. I chose this poem because I like the choice of words that Shakespeare used and I like the rhyme pattern. I also like the overall meaning of the poem. The poem leaves the reader questioning if the lady that Shakespeare is talking about is colored or not. Maybe his Mistress’ was of color maybe she wasn’t, but only Shakespeare would know the

Show More
Related

  • Essay on Lust and Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Campion’s There is a Garden

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...uty which is impossible for any woman or man to match. Campion's poem reflects this impossible ideal that society inflicts on us. This woman in There is a Garden in Her Face could never really live up to the image that the speaker has created of her. The image is false, and so is his love because he is only focusing on her outward appearance. The speaker in Shakespeare's sonnet clearly is not in love with his mistress' looks. Everything about her is contrary to society's standards, but he understands the absurdity of these standards and rejects them. There is more to his mistress than meets the eye, and that is why he truly loves her.

    Read More

  • Egotism and Love in Shakespeare's Sonnet 42

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Shakespeare's sonnets deal with two very distinct individuals: the blond young man and the mysterious dark-haired woman. The young man is the focus of the earlier numbered sonnets while the latter ones deal primarily with the dark-haired woman. The character of the young man and a seductive mistress are brought together under passionate circumstances in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 42." The sexual prowess of the mistress entangles both Shakespeare and the young man in her web of flesh. This triangular sonnet brings out Shakespeare's affection for both individuals. His narcissistic ideal of delusional love for the young man is shown through diction and imagery, metrical variation and voice, contained in three quatrains and one couplet.

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun Many authors compose sonnets about women whom they loved. Most of these authors embellish their women's physical characteristics by comparing them to natural wonders that we, as humans, find beautiful. Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" contradicts this idea, by stating that his mistress lacks most of the qualities other men wrongly praise their women for possessing. Shakespeare presents to one that true love recognizes imperfections and feels devotion regardless of flaws, while satirically expressing his personal thoughts on Petrarchan sonnets. Through the use of comparisons, the English sonnet and an anti-Petrarchan approach, he creatively gets his point across.

    Read More

  • Sonnet 130 Edna David Millay Analysis

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare and Millay use rhyme scheme to highlight the theme of love in their poems. Sonnet 130 is about Shakespeare’s love for his mistress, who is not the most beautiful person in the world, but he still loves her. In Shakespeare’s sonnet he uses the change in rhyme scheme when he proclaims, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground/ And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare” (12-13 Shakespeare). He does not shower his Mistress with praises of good looks, however in the concluding two lines, he surprises the reader by shifting the rhyme scheme to express his of love. He loves her not because of her looks, but he thinks she is just as extraordinary as any person. Millay’s sonnet is about her life and how she has lost opportunities to form a relationship and is now alone and lonely. Millay makes use of the rhyme scheme to

    Read More

  • A Very Gruesome Tribute To Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another piece Shakespeare analyzes is his mistress’ hair. A major cliché today about women 's beauty is their hair. Men assume that it should be silky and smooth and sometimes even shiny. Shakespeare ends up turning this assumption on its head in this poem. Back in Shakespeare’s time, the readers might have recognized all these worn-out similes as allusions or references to images in other love poems. For example, the image of hair as black as wires sprouting out of her head might be meant to gross the audience out. It almost sounds like Shakespeare is referencing a creepy

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Love To The Dark Lady Analysis

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    That means, the approaches of poet’s love remain the same. In one place, he portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the young man. The poet has experienced what he thinks of as "the marriage of true minds," also known as true love, that his love remains strong, and that he believes that it’s eternal. Nothing will stop their love, as in the symbols like all the ships, stars and stormy seas that fill the landscape of the poem and so on what can affect to their love. The poet is too much attracted with the young man’s beauty, though this indicates to something really bad behavior. But in another place, Shakespeare makes fun of the dark lady in sonnet 130. He explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull cleavage, a heavy step, pale lips and so on, but to him, real love is, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they are not. But other critics may not agree with this and to them, beauty may define to something

    Read More

  • Shakespeare Doesn T Who Is The Dark Lady

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare’s themes are mostly conventional topics, such as love and beauty. Nevertheless, Shakespeare presents these themes in his own unique fashion, most notably by addressing the poems of beauty not to a fair maiden, but instead to a young man: ‘‘shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (book). Shakespeare points out that the youth’s beauty is more perfect then the beauty of a summer day. It is also “more temperate”, in other words more gentle, more restrained whereas the summer’s day might have violent excesses in store. At first glance of sonnet 18, it’s pretty much certain that one would think Shakespeare is referring to a woman, not a man. The idea of a man describing another man with such choice of words is always seen with a different eye. Several even stated that Shakespeare is homosexual. Whichever the case may be, Shakespeare painted beauty in the most original matter. He dared to do what everybody else didn’t, or maybe feared to, and accomplished his goal with flying colors. Besides, in his sonnets, Shakespeare states that the young man was made for a woman and urges the man to marry so he can pass on h...

    Read More

  • Close Reading of Shakespeare´s Sonnet 130

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sonnet 130 openly mocks the traditional love sonnets of the time. This is, perhaps, made most apparent through the use of subversive comparisons and exaggerated similes. The intention of a subversive comparison is to mimic a traditional comparison yet highlight the opposite purpose. Whereas his contemporaries would compare their love’s beauty to alabaster or pearls, Shakespeare notes, “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” (3), therefore intentionally downplaying the beauty of his mistress. Later he states, “...in some perfumes there is more delight / than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” (7-8). Both of these exemplify that Shakespeare ridicules the traditional love sonnet by employing the same imagery to convey opposite intentions.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Sonnets of Petrarchan and Shakespearean in Style, Structure and Subject Approach

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare and Petrarch, two poets popular for their contributions on the issue of love, both tackle the subject of their work through sonnet, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the way, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, it is clear that in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare in fact parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Shakespeare seems, by all accounts, to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s piece by giving an English poem portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. In reviewing "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan work. The leading major contrast between the two poems is the piece structure utilized (McLaughlin).

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 and Clause McKay's The Harlem Dancer

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...

    Read More

  • Sonnet 18 And 130 Analysis

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, also known as “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” represents and discusses the love and beauty of his beloved. Also, the speaker refers to his love more sweet, temperate, and fair than all the beauty that he can see in nature. He also speaks how the sun can be dim and that nature’s beauty is random: “And often is his gold complexion dimm’d / And every fair from fair sometimes declines” (6-7). At the end of the poem the speaker explains that they beauty of the person that is being mentioned is not so short because, his love with live as long as people are still reading this sonnet. The beauty of his beloved with last longer than nature, because although nature is beautiful flowers and other things still have to die: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / so long lives this and this gives life to thee” (13-14) Also, the speaker is comparing his love to a summer’s day, but does not really say anything specific or that the qualities given to his beloved are more superior to a summer’s day, which can allow the reader to understand that his beloved can stay young, beautiful, and never going to die.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Shall I Compare Thee? and My Mistress' Eyes are

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Compared to the first few lines in the second sonnet: "My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun coral is far more red than her lips red" And this shocking feeling of offense and harshness continues through to line twelve in the second sonnet. However, there are some dark points in the first sonnet as well, as death is mentioned in line eleven "Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade" And "rough winds" in line three. However, how harsh and sincere these sonnets may be, both have the conclusions with the similar idea that Shakespeare loves his woman so much that he doesn't need to give her false comparisons to do with beautiful items or beautiful things that don't last forever - his love lasts for eternity in the sonnet: "So long as men can breath, and eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

    Read More

  • Sonnet Analysis - Fair Is My Love, by Edmund Spenser

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    This sonnet is an anti-love poem that ironically shows how the fairness of a lady is contingent upon nature's blessings and her external manifestations.  The Spenserian style brings unity to this sonnet, in that it's theme and rhyme is interwoven throughout, but the focus of her "fairness" is divided into an octave and a sestet.  The first eight lines praise her physical features (hair, cheeks, smile), while the last six lines praise her internal features (words, spirit, heart).  This sonnet intentionally hides the speaker's ridicule behind counterfeit love-language, using phrases like: "fair golden hairs" (line 1), and "rose in her red cheeks" (line 3), and "her eyes the fire of love does spark" (line 4).  This traditional love language fills pages of literature and song, and has conventionally been used to praise the attributes of a lover; but this sonnet betrays such language by exhibiting a critique rather than commendation. This sonnet appears to praise the beauty of a lady but ironically ridicules her by declaring that her "fairness" is contingent upon nature, physical features, and displaying a gentle spirit, which hides her pride.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Sonnet, "My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing like the Sun"

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman's physical perfection or her "angelic voice." As those traits are all ones that will fade with time, Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Shakespeare suggests that the eyes of the woman he loves are not twinkling like the sun: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (1). Her hair is compared to a wire: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (3). These negative comparisons may sound almost unloving, however, Shakespeare proves that the mistress outdistances any goddess. This shows that the poet appreciates her human beauties unlike a Petrarchan sonnet that stresses a woman's cheek as red a rose or her face white as snow. Straying away from the dazzling rhetoric, this Shakespearean poem projects a humane and friendly impression and elicits laughter while expressing a truer love. A Petrarchan sonnet states that love must never change; this poem offers a more genuine expression of love by describing a natural woman.

    Read More

  • Comparison: Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnets

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through the form of sonnet, Shakespeare and Petrarch both address the subject of love, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the manner, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare, in fact, parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Through his English poem, Shakespeare seems to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s work by portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, upon a review of "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” one quickly perceives that Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. However, Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan style.

    Read More

More about Shakespeare Mistress Diction

Open Document