Assignment 9

William Shakespeare: “Sonnets 18, 130" (pp. 786-87)

Sonnet 18: The speaker in this sonnet in order to praise his beloved makes a series of comparisons which pay tribute to the beauty of the person addressed. (Many of these comparisons later became quite cliched). Line 1, for example, proposes a comparison which the speaker refuses to fulfill, but in doing so he actually does make a comparison. The comparisons conform to the structure of the sonnet (three quatrains and a couplet). The speaker compares the “thee” with specific aspects of nature throughout the sonnet. The couplet expresses the age-old concept that art bestows immortality upon the subject being written about.

Sonnet 130: This sonnet plays with the conventions and cliches widespread by Shakespeare’s time which elaborated on the extraordinary qualities of the person described (the flashing brilliance of the maiden’s eyes compared to the splendor of the sun, the teeth like pearls, and so on). The speaker concludes that he genuinely loves his mistress even if she doesn’t measure up to the matchless beauty praised by other sonneteers. The last line is somewhat troublesome and may be paraphrased as “I think my loved one is as rare as any woman (“she”) misrepresented (“belied”) through false comparisons (“false compare”).