William Shakespeare's Sonnet No 130- Satire in Elizabethan Era

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 damask’d, 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.

William Shakespeare have written 150 sonnets with themes such as passage of time, mortality, love, beauty , infidelity's, jealousy. The first 126 sonnets were addressed to a young man and the last 28 to a mysterious dark lady.

Sonnet 130 is an unconventional sonnet written to his dark lady, which is extraordinary and differs in conception , from other convention or traditional Elizabethan sonnets. Sonnet 130 plays an elaborate joke on the conventions of love poetry. Contemporary poets glorify their loved ones using hyperbolic expressions, but Shakespeare preferred realistic, unflatter tone ignoring all elevating epithets. He merely stays in solace with his beloved as she is. This sonnet parodies other sonnets of the Elizabethan era, which had Petrarchan ideals, where women were praised and seen as beyond approach. Hence , Sonnet 130 is an anomaly ,a unique which flouts the rules of convention and breaks new ground. There is a mixture of satire, seriousness in the enumeration of the items of beauty.

Shakespeare projects that the mistresses eyes are “nothing like the sun,” her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. In the second quatrain, the Shakespeare says he has seen roses separated by color (“damasked”) into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistress’s cheeks; and he says the breath that “reeks” from his mistress is less delightful than perfume. In the third quatrain, he admits that, though he loves her voice, music “hath a far more pleasing sound,” and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress—unlike goddesses—walks on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, “by heav’n,” he thinks his love as rare and valuable “As any she belied with false compare”—that is, any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved one’s beauty.

Shakespeare have used irony and paradox to prove that love cannot be perfectly attained but he compliments his mistress and profess his undying devotion to her. Shakespeare undermines his mistress and compares her to unattractive things, yet he still appreciates her for her and sees her as a beautiful person.