Sonnet 130 To The Dark Lady example essay topic

Different types of love are revealed in Shakespeare's sonnets. Love as we know takes many forms and Shakespeare's sonnets show both the physical and the emotional sides of love. Sonnet 18, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", is written to a young man. The sonnet discusses the relationship between the Young Man and summer. The poet says that the Young Man's beauty does not even compare to that of summer. The Young Man's beauty will last forever as opposed to summer which will eventually end because, "every fair from fair sometime declines".

The poet is clearly besotted with this Young Man. From the beginning one can see the attraction to his physical beauty, but it is only at the end of the poem that one can see the love is more than just physical. In comparison, the poet writes sonnet 130 to the Dark Lady. The sonnet discusses the Dark Lady's unattractive characteristics compared to other people's beautiful characteristics. In this poem there seems to be no physical attraction whatsoever. In fact throughout the beginning of the poem, the poet seems to be degrading the Dark Lady by attacking her physical attributes.

He portrays the Dark Lady as one who is lacking in the beauty department. At the end of the sonnet, by the rhyming couplets, one sees that this love is not one based on a physical attraction rather on a very strong and unique emotional love. Though sonnet 18 discusses physical beauty, clearly there is an underlying emotional tie because the poet talks about how his love for this Young Man will be an eternal love and we all know that physical beauty does not last forever. As a result, true love requires some sort of non-physical foundation in order to be considered eternal and rare.

This is the type of love that one sees in sonnet 130. It is a love based on a non-physical attraction and this is what keeps the relationship between the poet and the Dark Lady strong. Although in both poems the poet concludes by praising both the Young Man and the Dark Lady's beauty, the love for both of the subjects is revealed at different times in the the poems. The love which is revealed in sonnet 18 is line 2 when the poet says that the Young Man does not even come close to being compared to a summer's day.

In contrast, the love in sonnet 130 is revealed at the rhyming couplet when the poet says, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare, /As any she belied with false compare" (13-14). Love is a very funny thing. Sometimes one realizes it right away and sometimes it takes a long time to recognize one's love. Sometimes a physical attraction is what sparks love, and sometimes it is just emotions that spark the love. In both sonnets one sees that love requires more than just a physical attraction to keep the flame burning.