Sonnet 130

My Mistres eyes are nothing like the Sunne,

Currall is farre more red, then her lips red,

If snow be white, why then her brests are dun:

If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head:

I have seene Roses damaskt, red and white,

But no such Roses see I in her cheekes,

And in some perfumes is there more delight,

Then in the breath that from my Mistres reekes.

I love to heare her speake, yet well I know,

That Musicke hath a farre more pleasing sound:

I graunt I never saw a goddesse goe,

My Mistres when shee walkes treads on the ground.

And yet by heaven I thinke my love as rare,

As any 'she' beli'd with false compare.

Commentary

Addressed to a lady who does not conform to the sonneteers' ideal.

Changes to the original text: line 14, the word 'she' put in apostrophes.

In the first quatrain, the poet sets out his mistress as nothing like the paragons of other sonneteers.

In the second quatrain, the poet continues to play his mistress' qualities against the ideal attributes of the subjects of other sonnets. 'Damaskt' means chequered. 'Reekes' means simply emits, it does not mean 'stinks'.

In the third quatrain, he compares his mistress' voice to music and finds music more pleasant, and he compares her gait to the gait of a goddess, and finds that she walks on the ground.

In the final couplet he asserts that he nevertheless finds his love (mistress) as rare (splendid) as any she (woman) praised by false compare (false comparisons).

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