My Mistress' Eyes: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breast 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.
Throughout this piece, Shakespeare weaves two distinct yet complimentary tones. He mixes adoring with affirming. Specifically seen in the phrases highlited gray, Shakespeare seems to be conceeding the "mediocrity" of his mistress. His comparative words--nothing like, far more, but no such, yet well-- would seem to have a tone of shame, but Shakespeare's ingenious combination of adoration with apparent "shame" leads me to believe that his "shame" is actually affirmation. Through his affirmed tone, Shakespeare is telling the audience that his mistress, while she may not be pictured in People's 50 Hottest Women spread, is just what he wants. We additionally see his satisfaction with his mistress in his obvious tone of adoration. Here, Shakespeare's word connotation flips and serves as an indicator of his new tone. Now, Shakespeare utilizes words such as: love, heaven, rare and compare. In comparison to the previous darker and more 'ugly' words (damasked, reeks, tread...), Shakespeare's change of word choice reveals an ardor for the person of his mistress.
Employing strong word connotation and exaggerated comparisons, Shakespeare reveals his tone of adoration and confirmation to his audience...by which it seems he is affirming his love for his mistress.
Not sure if this quite nails it-- the reader is surprised at first to hear Shakespeare talking DOWN his love, right? "She's nothing like all those angel beauties..." She's NOT a goddess, she's NOT this picture of perfection. Why would Shakespeare make his love sound ugly?? Then we see it's revealed in that couplet-- always in the couplet :)-- his love, this woman, is as precious as any other woman is who may have been described FALSELY but overly flattering poets. It helps us to remember here that many poets in Shakespeare's time (including, for that matter, the Bard himself) wrote gradiose poems about their loves which included great amounts of flattery. Here, Shakespeare takes an entirely different approach: he refuses to say his love is anything but a normal, real woman. He won't exaggerate her merits, because he loves her for exactly who she is.
ReplyDeleteThe tone, therefore, could be described as humorous, tongue-in-cheek (he knows he's poking a bit of fun at his love), perhaps even satirical since he may imply here that other poets flatter. Then, in the couplet, the tone shifts to one of great warmth and sincerity. Can you see?
Your analysis is all on the right track-- thinking a little more marination would have led to your full grasp of it. :)
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