Sonnet 130 A Very Odd Loving Poem example essay topic

After going through all the Sonnets, I liked Sonnet 130 the most. To be frank enough, I found Sonnet 130 a very odd loving poem. Rather than praising his lover, Shakespeare at first seems to be insulting her. According to him, her eyes do not sparkle like the sun, her skin is grayish-brown rather than white, her lips aren't very red, her cheeks don't have much color, her hair looks like wires, her breath doesn't smell very good and that the sound of her voice certainly isn't as nice to listen to as music. He also points out that she doesn't float like a goddess; rather she walks on the ground like everyone else but at the end, he tries to illustrate that his love for her remains undiminished. It is always observed that while writing a love poem, most of the poets tend to idealize and romanticize the one they love.

They use all sort of comparisons to show how beautiful or handsome he / she is. But these comparisons aren't realistic. Even if someone really believes that the lover has sparkling eyes, snow-white skin, a charmingly musical voice, ... etc., these beliefs have nothing to do with love. In turn these seem to be more closely related to blind infatuation. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare tries to sum up the above-mentioned points in the last two lines wherein he states that the one he loves is as rare as, and therefore as precious as, any of those lovers who have been unrealistically described with false comparisons.

He realizes that the one he loves is not perfect but his love for her remains undiminished. The poem is in the English sonnet form. It contains fourteen lines wherein the first twelve lines are divided into three 4-line quatrains & the last two lines are combined to form a couplet in order to sum up the main theme of the poem. Each line in the Sonnet also consists of 10 Syllables. For Example: - My / mis/ tress' / eyes/ are / no/ thing / like/ the / sun/) & the lines also form an iambic penta metre. The poem also has a rhyming scheme of A BAB C DCD EFE F GG.

Additionally, among all other sonnets, Sonnet 130 consists of mixtures of similes and metaphors used throughout. The entire sonnet forms a series of comparisons. Shakespeare uses metaphor and similes to compare the features of his love to beautiful things they are not like. For Example: - In Line 1, he uses a simile to compare the "mistress eyes" to being "Nothing like the sun", in line 2, he uses a metaphor to illustrate how pale her "lips" are compared to a "coral" and so on. Finally, I can only say that Shakespeare has presented us, a vivid impression of a woman who is foolishly captivated with her relatively poor appearance and the reaction of her love. Hence due to these reasons, I liked Sonnet 130 the most.