A&H101

• William Shakespeare: 'Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'
• My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips' 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 damasked, 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
• Shakespearean sonnet

  • Three quatrains and a couplet
  • Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
  • Couplet plays a pivotal role, often arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end
• Shakespearean sonnet


  • Sonnet 130 of William Shakespeare's epic sonnet cycle
• Shakespearean sonnet


  1. First twelve lines compare the speaker's mistress unfavorably with nature's beauties

  2. Concluding couplet swerves in a surprising direction
• Shakespearean Sonnet


  The second major type of sonnet, following a different set of rules
• Shakespearean Sonnet structure


  1. Three quatrains

  2. One couplet

  3. Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
• Couplet


  Plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end
• Shakespearean Sonnet


  • Sonnet 130 of William Shakespeare's epic sonnet cycle
• In Sonnet 130

  The first twelve lines compare the speaker's mistress unfavorably with nature's beauties, but the concluding couplet swerves in a surprising direction