Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" Analysis

Today’s presentation will focus on “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare and “Sonnet 147” also by William Shakespeare. These poems, which both deal with the concept of beauty and love are interesting because they contradict each other even though they were written by the same poet and have the same themes. William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, an era known as the renaissance period. This obviously influenced Shakespeare’s writing as he wrote about love and beauty which are both common themes of this time.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lip's red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun,
If hair 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;
In some perfumes there is more delight
Than the breath with which my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,
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.

In the poem “My mistress’ eyes” we can see that Shakespeare is expressing the idea that beauty and physical attractiveness is only one aspect of a relationship and should not be seen as the main part of love. The poem is typical of its era because it is in the form of a sonnet and also because of its topic of love and beauty, was a common theme at this time. The poem, however, challenges the typical values of the age by expressing the opposite characteristics of other poems from that era. For example, instead of complimenting his mistress, he announces everything she is not. The first line of the poem reads, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” this line is surprising to readers as they would have expected this to be a poem about her beautiful looks, but instead he seem to be insulting her. He continues to compare her to beautiful things and to say that she is “nothing like them”; this creates an uneasy mood in the poem as he is positioning the audience to see his lover in a negative light. The original readers of this sonnet would have felt shocked to not see a typical poem about women’s looks and beauty. In one line, Shakespeare says “I love to hear her speak” this is the only compliment in the poem before the last two lines. Yet he continues to turn that compliment into an insult by saying that even though he loves it, other things sound far better. In this poem, Shakespeare clearly uses numerous poetic techniques such as rhyme and rhythm. For example, he rhymes ‘sun’ and ‘dun’, or ‘red’ and ‘head’ this choice of technique makes the poem easier and more enjoyable for the audience to read. *CHANGE SLIDE*His language choice is extremely effective and gives the reader a better understanding of his message. For example in the line “and in some perfumes is there more delight, than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” he uses the word ‘reeks’, rather than ‘smells‘. This emphasises on how bad her breath was and therefore is an effective use of vocabulary, this line allows Shakespeare to expresses the reality that her breath isn't always perfect and she doesn't always look beautiful but over time the physical attraction that brings people together in the beginning can fade, and for this reason a relationship needs much more to remain intact. The whole of Shakespeare’s poem about his mistress is a metaphorical sonnet; this is shown on multiple occasions where he says something is something else, instead of just comparing it to another object, such as ‘black wires grow on her head’. This metaphor gives the reader the image of thick, black, tangled hair therefore it was an effective line that emphasizes the messiness of her hair. The line “my mistress when she walks treads on the ground” can be viewed from a very literal or metaphorical point of view, yes, she does actually walk with her feet on the ground as everyone does, but this could also mean that she is a genuine, down to earth person, who’s head is not in the clouds, and who is not blinded by continuous praises and compliments about her beauty. Although the poem appears to be negative, it changes to positive at the end, in the last couplet of the sonnet Shakespeare changes the mood of the poem by saying that he looks past the fact that his mistress is not beautiful on the outside, because he fell in love with her personality. He describes his love as rare and makes it clear that he doesn't need to make false comparisons about her to know that in his heart he has tremendous love for her. He is saying he is happier now than he would be in a relationship with someone physically attractive by saying “And yet by heaven, my love is rare, as any she belied with false compare”, by this he means that he doesn’t need to tell her she is beautiful and say her eyes are like the sun because she knows that would be a lie, and he just loves her for who she is. The trait of changing the poem’s mood in the last two lines of a poem is a common feature of a sonnet and is effective because it draws the audiences’ attention to what he is trying to say.

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly express'd;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

“Sonnet 147” is also about love and beauty. Although both poems are from the same era and written by the same poet, they differ in multiple ways. For example, “Sonnet 147” is in some ways the opposite of “My mistress’ eyes” because it talks about her physical beauty being controlling and her personality being cruel, whereas the woman featured in “my mistress’ eyes” is beautiful on the inside but not on the outside. The message of this poem is yet again, ‘physical attraction isn’t the only part of the relationship’, but this time it’s aimed at the opposite end of the situation. Both poems are in the form of a sonnet and include rhythm and rhyme, and an example of this in “sonnet 147” is when Shakespeare rhymes “disease” with “please”. Both the poems include poetic devices such as metaphors. Sonnet 147 begins with the line “my love is fever”. This quote is suggesting that Shakespeare’s love for this woman and her beauty is controlling him like a sickness, and he can’t see past her good looks to see her true self which is cold and cruel. He describes the control that her looks have over him as a “sickly appetite” in other words he is hungry for her love and expresses a desire of lust. The 3rd line in the sonnet, “feeding on that which doth preserve the ill” is suggesting that his love for his mistress is feeding and maintaining the illness, and he knows this because he keeps going back to loving her, because her love and beauty is addictive, but unhealthy. He also says “my thoughts and my words are like a mad man’s lies foolishly uttered”, this metaphor is suggesting that he can’t think straight because his thoughts are love sick and he can’t see past the lie that is her mask of beauty. At the end of the poem Shakespeare comes to the realisation that his lover is not who he thought she was which a “fair and bright” woman was. He now compares her with negative things and portrays the woman in an undesirable light. He uses two similes to describe her personality, “as black as hell, as dark as the night” this is effective because it is showing how evil she really is and is proposing that just because someone is beautiful on the outside does not mean they are a good person all together.

Both of these poems are worthy of both contemporary and modern audiences’ notice, because the messages the poems are trying to convey to the reader “someone’s physical appearance doesn’t determine whether they are beautiful or not” and “even though someone is beautiful, it doesn’t mean they are beautiful on the inside,” are still appropriate for today’s society. Thank you for listening.