Sonnet 130 Essay, Research Paper

Sonnet 130

The theme of the sonnet is beauty in that Shakespeare is comparing the eternal beauty of the subject to the beauty of nature. Shakespeare paints a picture using a combination of metaphors and a simile. He starts the poem with a simile comparing his mistress eyes to the sun. He then switches over to using metaphors to compare the rest of his mistress characteristics such as her breast to snow and hair to wires. In Sonnet 130 Shakespeare is talking of his mistress, her fault and his feelings about her and her faults. The sonnet is about how love will remain permanent. Sonnet 130 assures us that his love is strong even if the woman has flaws. Sonnet 130 asserts the power of love. Throughout the poem there is an unexpected conclusion. The structure of the sonnet is in the form of an eight-line octet followed by a six-line sestet. The tone is an ironic tone because Shakespeare was satirizing the over blown diction and exaggerated comparison. The surprise in the last few lines seems more a twist on the odd tone of the sonnet. Instead of saying that she is not good enough for him, his realizations of homeliness only prove love as rare in line 13. The Volta is at the 13th line at the beginning of the heroic couplet, in this couplet, Shakespeare doesn t sum up what he was saying in the beginning but introduces a final thought. Shakespeare wanted to convey the image that even though his mistress was not as fair as one would hope for, they seemed to share some kind of kindship that no other could share with him. Shakespeare shows in this poem that the speaker shows that he has learned to love with his heart not his eyes.