SONNET 20 - Shakespeare
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

Analysis of sonnet 20

The sonnet belongs to the collection of 154 Shakespearean sonnets. Right from the title, the intelligent reader can see that the poet compares the “Fair Youth” to a woman’s face indeed the reader may be curious to find out the reasons why the poet has made such choice. The sonnet is organized into 3 quatrains in alternate rhyme and a rhyming couplet according to the structure of the English sonnet. The rhyme scheme consists of: ABAB CDCD EFEFE GG.
In the first quatrain the sonneteer compares the Fair Youth to a woman’s beauty. The image of “a woman's face with Nature's own hand painted” marks the natural beauty and perfection of the man. But even if he has a “woman’s heart” (line 3) he is not as false as women because his heart doesn’t shift his object of love as women used to do. Indeed the poet thinks the Fair Youth is more desirable than a woman.
In the second quatrain the poet goes on exalting the perfection of the Fair Youth. He has brighter eyes than a woman’s ones, indeed his eyes are “gilding the object whereupon it gazeth”. Therefore the Fair Youth is nice looking and his beauty reflects on the other things. He makes people more appreciable thanks to his good qualities. The lines 7 and 8 “a man in hue, all hues in his controlling, much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth” make the reader think that the Fair Youth is an attractive person who is desirable both by women and men. His good qualities provokes “men’s eyes and women’s soul”, indeed all the people are are subjugated and dominated by him. Such presentation of the Fair Youth reflects on Renaissance ideology of physical love; the passionate love is not considered a sin.
In the third quatrain the poet tells about the birth of the Fair Youth;”and for a woman wert thou first created; till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting”. The Fair Youth was firstly born as a woman, therefore nature felt in love with her and decided to turn her into a man. Such metaphoric image of love underlines the aspect of passion; indeed nature, which is a female gender, wanted the Fair Youth to be a man. In addition the speaking voice reveals his despair because he would like to get him as if he were a woman. In this quatrain the speaking voice explicit the aspect of passionate love which is the physical approach. In the rhyming couplet the speaking voice begs the Fair Youth to let him his love since his body is addressed to women.