Sonnet+130

SONNET 130 - William Shakespeare

GENRE/INFLUENCE: -Sonnet 130 has been recognized as a parody of most true love sonnets -Shakespeare's Sonnets can be classified as Shakespearian Poetry

DISGUISHABLE POETIC DEVICES/STYLE: -usually in love sonnets or poems there are references to Venus or Aphredite but there are none in this Shakespeare Sonnet - metaphor - ( " If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. " {line 5} ) -simile - ( " My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. " {line1} ) -comparisons - ( " Coral is far more red than her lips' red. " {line2} ) -repetition - ( " If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. " {line 5} ) - ( " I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks. " {line 6/7} )

HISTORICAL PERIOD/INFLUENCE: - Shakespearian - Elizabethan Times in England

CHARACTERS/ RELATIONSHIPS: - Man ( older ) - Wife/ Mistress ( also older ) - love each other

SETTING/PLOT: - an older man talking and describing his relationship with his mistress - her aging/ ugly/ non-passionate love - but realizing twhat true love is - comparing her negativitly

THEMATIC OBSERVATIONS/ KEY WORDS: - ( " And yet, by Heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. " {line14/15} ) - Even though this mans mistress is old and not attractive or passionate he realizes that true love lies deeper - //ROSES// were repeated multiple times to represent beauty and love and who she lacked beauty in her lovers eyes but that didn't mean she lacks love

QUOTABLE- MEMORIZABLE QUOTES AND ANALYSIS: - ( " If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head " {line 5} ) - his mistress' hair is black and crazy, untamed - ( " My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, Coral is far more red than her lips red. { line 1/2 } ) - his mistress' eye'd don't shine like they used to - and he her lips are bland and colourless, no brightness

LUCY HIGGS

**Sonnet 130: Questions from textbook (page 169)**

Sonnets 127-152 are the second sequence in Shakespeare's sonnets in which a figure known as the "Dark Lady", (a woman with dark hair, eyes and complexion) enters and instantly becomes the object of the poet's desire and affection. Unlike other sonnets, in Sonnet 130 Shakespeare doesn't use extravagant metaphors or allusion when comparing this lady.

6 a.) The lady of this poem, in comparison to the beauty that the poet normally describes in women, is physically unattractive. Her lips are not red and lush, her eyes are dull and bleak, her hair is horrid, and both she and her breath smell. From line 9, "I love to hear her speak, yet well I know" we can see that she is expressive to the author, and from the entirety of the poem it can be gathered that the "Dark Lady" doesn't care much for her appearance and lacks vanity.

b.) The entire poem is laced with comedy as it is a teasing of the conventional love sonnet. The poet mocks the use of exaggerated beauty that most authors and writers during his time would often describe. He then further pokes fun at clichés, such as "eyes like the sun" and "skin as white as snow" by doing them in reverse (claiming that his lady's eyes are **nothing** like the sun). In Sonnet 130 the author simply states everything that the Dark Lady is not, but because of the light hearted manner in which he does this, the entire poem becomes comedic and humorous. -Rachel Carich