sonnet 130

Sonnet 130 This Shakespeare sonnet talks about the contrasts of the speaker’s lover and the beauties of the world. Unfortunately the lover is never on the winning side. The speaker tells us his lover’s physical appearance, or lack thereof. His lover’s eyes are “nothing like the sun.” As for her lips, “coral is far more red than” hers. Unlike the white snow, her breasts are dun-colored. Her hair was not smooth; it was …

…a goddess, a woman who was perfect, for no one is perfect. The love poems were written on fantasy rather than the reality that Shakespeare writes about. The writer decides not to follow the crowd of praising women in the love poems, but to tell the truth about them, for her eyes are really nothing like the sun. All in all, this sonnet is a joke on the conventions of love poetry at the time.