'My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun' Summary and Analysis

   My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun 

     (Sonnet 130)

 By William Shakespeare

                                                                           

SUMMARY

 "My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun." is a poem providing description of a lady detailed presentation of her physical aspects. The poem highlights a lady whose eyes can not compared with sun, similarly her lips are nothing in front of the redness of a coral. Her skin colon stands nowhere. He compares it with the whiteness of snow and finds out that she is of brown  complexion and that brownish colour contains a dullness. Her hair are as if black wires have grown on her head. She lacks the gorgeous combination of redness of rose with a streak of white on he cheeks. Her breath carries no fragrance. On the contrary, he feels bad odour in it. Even her voice is not melodious and the poet known this difference too. He is also aware of the fact that she does not move like a goddess. In reality, she walks like a normal girl. All these metaphors have been used to show that in front of all the beauties taken from the world, she is nothing but an ugly presence. She is the one whom anyone can ignore very easily. The three quatrains are nothing but the account of a lady's physical appearance. He has her features with all those things which are extremely beautiful and over whelming. But through such metaphors, he is not trying to present the beauty of anyone or anything. The main or the central idea of the poem lies in the last two lines of the composition. The theme is that the real beauty does not lie in the visible physicality of a person. On the other hand, the heavenly or blissful beauty is the one that exists inside a person's heart or in her soul. A person is beautiful if he or she possesses a pure and beautiful heart or soul.

 

                                                  

 

 

Meaning

The meaning of this poem is interesting to understand. Though Shakespeare presents the main idea in the couplet, each section reveals the qualities of a lady the speaker loves. According to the poetic persona, his beloved is unlike the beautiful things of nature. She is as she is, not a lady with heavenly attributes. The speaker loves a lady with whom he can share his heart. There is no need to have a goddess if one has a partner who understands the minute emotional impulses. That’s why the speaker proclaims his love is rare as he does not flatter her with false epithets.

 
Literary Devices

Shakespeare uses the following literary devices in his ‘Sonnet 130’.

    Simile: It occurs in the first two lines: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red”.

    Metaphor: Readers can find an implicit comparison between music and human voice in this line “That music hath a far more pleasing sound”.

    Hyperbole: It occurs in the following lines: “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” and “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”.

    Irony: Readers can find the use of irony in the final couplet. Here, Shakespear ironically comments on the epithets used by contemporary poets.

    Allusion: According to scholars this sonnet alludes to the convention of glorifying a lady’s beauty in contemporary as well earlier sonnets.

    Alliteration: It occurs in “Coral is far more red than her lips’ red”, “hear her speak”, etc.