Double Vision: Sonnet 130

This Sonnet written by William Shakespeare compares his lover to other beauties in life.  For example, he states her lips are less red than coral, if snow was white her breast are dun, her eyes are nothing like the sun and her breath reeks; it is less delightful than ones perfumes. The usual love poems are soft, sweet and kind. This poem discusses the unfavorable characteristics of his lover. I notice in the poem he compares her characteristics to different components in nature. Comparing her eyes to the sun and comparing snow to her breast are some examples. Even though he notices and describes the unfavorable faults in his lover; she does not need to smell like flowers or shine like the sun to be beautiful. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is a phrase that can describe the feelings in this poem. Everyone has  different definitions to the meaning of beauty.