SONNET 130

In the present text I’m going to analyse the sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare.

 

Just from the analysis of the layout the reader can understand the sonnet diisplays the typical Elizabethan conventions of the sonnet. Indeed, it is arranged into three quatrains in alternate rhyme and a rhyming couplet.

 

The sonnet is dedicated to a woman that is the dark lady. In the first three quatrains the speaking voice describes the woman thanks to similes. The characterisation of the lady is based on negative qualities, that are opposed to the qualities of the angelic woman.

 

In the first quatrain the speaking voice reveals to the reader the dark lady’s eyes have nothing in common with the sun, her lips are not red, her skin is dark, her hair is raven. All her qualities have negative connotations: her way of walking is heavily, her voice is not soft as music, but not less pleasing to the poet.

That is the lady is not described in her harmony, purity and divinity. On the contrary the poet’s love to the lady conveys the idea of a realism and physicality.

Only by reading the rhyming couplet the reader can understand the lady is not criticised and judged by the poet, but rather her reality is highlighted.

 

In the final couplet the speaking voice conveys the idea that the lady is not a typical idealised woman of the traditional love sonnets. The speaking voice underlines she is a real woman not like the angelic woman of the Petrarchan model, that is the dark lady is truer than the conventional woman. Indeed, the characterisation of the angelic woman is exaggerated and false.

The speaking voice communicates his love to the woman although she is shown like a common person. It’s not a platonic love like the fair youth’s one, but the love of the real being of the woman.

 

 

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 1

PHYSICAL FEATURE	TERM OF COMPARISON	YES	NO
Eyes	The sun		X
Lips	Red coral		X
Breasts	Dun	X
Hair	Black wires	X
Cheeks	Roses		X
Breath	Perfumes		X
Voice	Music		X
Way of walking	A goddess		X

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 2

Divinity

Beauty

Purity

Harmony

Brightness

Pleasantness

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 3

Her breasts are dun

Black wires grow on her head

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 4

B: the lady is a real woman, not an idealised one

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 5

In the final couplet the poet conveys the idea that the lady is not a typical idealised woman of the traditional love sonnets. That is the dark lady is truer than the angelic woman. Indeed, the characterisation of the angelic woman is exaggerated and false.

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 6

B: To mark his distance from traditional love sonnets reversing their conventions

D: to oppose the idealised woman, typical of traditional sonnets, to a real woman

E: to keep other suitors far from the beloved lady

F: to show how exaggerated, hyperbolic certain metaphors/similes are by reversing them

 

PAGE 141 EXERCISE 7

Quatrains

Regular

Conventional

Parody

Bright

Soft

Roses

Angels

Beloved