In stark contrast Shakespeare makes no attempt at deification of the dark lady in fact he shuns it outright, as we see in lines 11-12: 'I grant I never saw a goddess go / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.' Here the poet explicitly states that his mistress is not a goddess. Petrarch, for example, addressed many of his most famous sonnets to an idealized woman named Laura, whose beauty he often likened to that of a goddess. The sonnet is generally considered a humorous parody of the typical love sonnet. Its message is simple: the dark lady's beauty cannot be compared to the beauty of a goddess or to that found in nature, for she is but a mortal human being. It is also one of the few of Shakespeare's sonnets with a distinctly humorous tone. Sonnet 130 is a pleasure to read for its simplicity and frankness of expression. 'And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.'Īnd yet, I swear before heaven, I think she is just as extraordinary as any woman that may be described with false comparisons. I admit I have never seen a goddess walk, but my mistress, when she walks, steps (humanly) on the ground: 'I grant I never saw a goddess go / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:' I love to hear her speak, even though I know well that music has a far more pleasing sound 'I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound ' 'And in some perfumes is there more delight / Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.'Īnd some perfumes smell more delightful than the malodorous breath of my mistress. I have seen roses of pink, red, and white, but her cheeks are none of these colors 'I have seen roses damask'd, red and white / But no such roses see I in her cheeks ' If snow is white, then her breasts are a dull brown (in comparison) if hairs are wires, then black wires grow on her head.

'If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.'

My mistress's eyes look nothing like the sun coral is far more red than her lips are. 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun / Coral is far more red than her lips' red '

Nothing like the sun novel