William Shakespeare s Sonnet 130 The Revelation of an Unconventional Conception of Love
In the time of William Shakespeare and Elizabethan England, most sonnets were modeled after Petrarch, a man who greatly popularized the conventional love sonnet. Petrarch’s most famous sonnet sequence was written as a series of love poems to an idealized mistress named Laura. In these sonnets, Petrarch praises this woman’s worth and perfection extensively. Through his use of a number of metaphors, Petrarch equates Laura’s beauty to a variety of beautiful objects often found in nature. Shakespeare found that although this was the accepted technique for writing love poetry, most of the metaphors and figures of speech commonly used by many poets had already become cliché. ... Shakespeare did not believe in this kind of superficial love based upon appearances, and in fact, he wrote “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”, or Sonnet 130, as a light-hearted mockery of conventional love in this time period. Throughout the course of this poem, Shakespeare’s speaker asserts a view of his lover that is quite realistic and untraditional. In the end though, he still recognizes and embraces the fundamental theme of Petrarchan sonnets: total and consuming love. Shakespeare employed a variety of poetic elements as a means of developing and exposing Sonnet 130’s theme to the reader. Through his use of both diction and form, Shakespeare clearly states his opposition to the use of conventional methods to flatter one’s lover, and he poignantly comments on the way in which the love between two people can be expressed and interpreted. In Sonnet 130, there is no use of grandiose metaphor or allusion- he does not compare his love to Venus; there is no evocation to Morpheus. This poem is a realistic look at the love of the writer. Careful inspection of Shakespeare’s use of form and diction reveal his intent upon reflecting and understanding true love. Shakespeare purposely wrote “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” as a sonnet, and as a result, he utilized this kind of closed form to its fullest potential. Sonnet 130 is composed of 14 lines: an octet, a sestet, and lastly, a concluding couplet. Although this form is highly rigid and seemingly restrictive, Shakespeare used this structure to create both meaning and emphasis on the arguments he wished to make. In the octet, Shakespeare presents the opposing argument as the speaker experiments with comparing his mistress to the usual descriptive objects.