Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 Anti Petrarchan example essay topic

291 words
Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 deals with the issue of ideal and unconditional love just like Petrarch's "She Used to Let Her Golden Hair Fly Free". However, the poems go about explaining this love in remarkably different styles. Petrarch's sonnet is a typical sonnet of the time of Renaissance, which uses lofty comparisons to praise a beloved idol. On the other hand, Shakespeare's sonnet is very informal and seemingly disrespectful to the poet's love, as if mocking the old, tedious tradition of the straightforward statement of the Renaissance theme of love, which was created by Petrarch.

It can be clearly seen in Petrarch's love poems that his love toward Laura is awfully sincere and earnest. In his sonnets, Petrarch genuinely expresses what he sees in his lover-her beauty, her value, and her perfection-by using a peculiar variety of metaphors and images that are mostly based on natural attractions. "She used to let her golden hair fly free/... Her eyes were brighter than the radiant west". Petrarch (lines 1~3).

Accordingly, the poet describes Laura as an angel who is extremely lovable and astonishing. On the other hand, in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare's tone is light-hearted and describes his lover as a woman whom most Renaissance men would not prefer to find charming. His lover's eyes are not at all like the sun; her breath is not as delightful as other perfumes; other music is more pleasant than her voice. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun / And in some perfumes is there more delight / Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. /That music hath a far more pleasing sound (than her voice)". (lines 1, 7, 8, 10).