Antipoetry “Sonnet 130” by Shakespeare

In this chapter, it talks about how poet uses ā€œantipoemsā€ to describe what the poem is about. A famous poet who uses “antipoems” is Shakespeare.

Sonnet 130

My mistressā€™ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lipsā€™ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damaskā€™d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Ā 

This sonnet compares the speakerā€™s lover to a number of other beauties but never in the loverā€™s favor. Her eyes are ā€œnothing like the sun,ā€ her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. Ā The speaker also say he has seen roses separated by color into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistressā€™s cheeks; and he says the breath that ā€œreeksā€ from his mistress is less delightful than perfume.Ā ButĀ he admits that, though he loves her voice, music ā€œhath a far more pleasing sound,ā€ and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress unlike goddesses, walks on the ground. But at the end, the speaker say that any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved oneā€™s beauty.

 

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