An unconventional love poem about the Dark Lady httpmarrasoukcom A sonnet has 14 lines The first 12 lines are 3 quatrains Groups of 4 lines My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun ID: 430944
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Slide1
Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
An unconventional love poem about the “Dark Lady”Slide2
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A sonnet has 14 lines
The first 12 lines are
3 quatrains
Groups of 4 lines
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.
rhyme scheme
ABAB
With a
closing couplet
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Sums things
up!Slide3
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In a conventional love poem the writer would exaggerate how beautiful his mistress is:
My mistress' eyes are more
fantastic than the sun;
But in his unconventional love poem Shakespeare
underplays how beautiful his mistress is:
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
He has turned around the convention of exaggerated praiseSlide4
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He carries on with the unconventional approach in the next lines
Coral is far more red than her lips' red
Pink-orange colour
Conventional
desirable feature
Her lips aren't red
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
Grey brown colour
The conventional
Something
of a cliche
Is he saying she is not
beautiful or is he saying
she is beautiful in a different way?Slide5
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In the next lines he moves on to describe other physical features
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Gold wires were used
in head-dress and
compared to golden hair
Blondes were more
highly rated
So she is not
conventionally
beautiful
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white
mixed
But she doesn’t
have this complexion
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;Slide6
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The author moves from how she looks to how she smells
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
Smells- the word
didn’t have a
negative meaning in
Shakespeare’s time
He’s not saying the smell of
her breath is unpleasant -
just that perfume smells sweeter
In conventional love poems
you would say her breath wassweeter than perfume
But Shakespeare takes an
unconventional approachSlide7
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The next feature is the sound of her voice
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
He’s not being critical of her voice:
all he’s saying is that music
has a more pleasing sound
In the conventional love
poem the writer
would say that her voice
was sweeter than musicSlide8
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The poet describes how his mistress walks
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
I admit
to you
I’ve never seen
a goddess walk
My mistress walks like anyone else,
on the ground, rather than floating through the air
He’s stressing his mistress is no goddess.
In a conventional love
poem she would be
described as
a goddessSlide9
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So does the poet think that his mistress is beautiful or what?
The last 2 lines tell us
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
exceptional
Direct statement, telling
us what he thinks
For emphasis
She is as beautiful as
any woman who is praised
with false comparisons
The poet thinks she’s
beautiful but doesn’t want
to describe her in a cliched way.