MY MISTRESS' EYES ARE NOTHING LIKE THE SUN

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.        

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,             
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;                          
And in some perfumes is there more delight                
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.            

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know                     
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;                 
I grant I never saw a goddess go;                               
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. 

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare                
As any she belied with false compare.                         

The poem, also called sonnet 130, belongs to a collection of sonnets and was written by Shakespeare according to the Elizabethan sonnet structure.

The poem is arranged, so, into 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The rhyme-scheme is ABAB-CDCD-EFGF-HH.

Shakespeare, in this poem, tries to make a description of the woman he loves. He compares the eyes of his beloved to the sun, but he notices that they are totally different! He goes on with the evaluation, and unexpectedly the reader finds out that the woman turns out to lose every comparison: her lips are less red than coral, her breasts are not white as they should be according to the typical convention, her hairs are not blond and soft, but black and similar to wires. She hasn't pinkish cheeks and her breath isn't even perfumed. Furthermore, the poet says that he loves listening to her speaking, but he knows that music is more pleasant. He adds also that he has never seen a goddess walking, but his beloved treads the ground.

At this point, the reader could think that Shakespeare is ridiculing the woman, but this is not his real objective. He is, actually, making a parody of the typical conventions of courtly love poetry, emphasizing the woman's defects. Shakespeare, in opposition to the tradition, doesn't think that idealizing a woman is useful to praise her qualities; it is more useful, instead, to concentrate on her realistic features. He understands that speaking of perfect ladies is useless as they don't exist. Men should accept and understand that love depends on the lover subjective point of view and takes no notice on the imperfection of the beloved. This leads to a more concrete and physical nature of love that is in contrast to the previous ideal and platonic conception of love.

This idea becomes clear in the final rhyming couplet. Shakespeare, in fact, says that although his woman isn't as perfect as she should/could be, he still loves her and rather, he thinks that his love is rare, and truer than any other love described with a false comparison.

As for the stylistic devices, the poet makes a great use of sensory images. He makes reference to sight, hearing and smell to create a more vivid and realistic image of the woman he is speaking of. He also uses similes to create a antithesis and emphasize the imperfection of the woman.