“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is part of a group of poems by William Shakespeare; the poems title suggest that the speaker will be mocking his lover throughout the poem but in reality, he is describing the love he has for her and all her imperfections. The use of one’s way to admire their beloved is often overexaggerated due to blind affection which is not true love. By the use of figurative language, meter, structure and tone the speaker displays his genuine affection towards his lover: expressing his affection towards his lover in a genuinely by admiring her simplicity in such a way that mocks the cliché style other poets. Although the speaker is focusing on the flaws of his lover which implies that he is ridiculing her; the speaker is not since he is describing her natural beauty instead of enhancing her appearance like other poets defying the convectional love poems.
The speaker utilizes figurative language to describe his lover’s imperfections which in turns reinforces the parody of insincere love poems. The speaker uses imagery to vividly describe her flaws through stating that “coral is far more red than her lips” and that her “eyes are nothing like the sun” (Shakespeare 1-2). This use of imagery conveys the kind of fake beauty that this poem is strongly against and makes use of his lovers’ ordinary beauty to contrast the cliché views that other poets have. Furthermore, using a series of similes that invert the conventional terms of praise applied to women in love poetry (Grace). Also, the use of similes as a negative comparison for his mistress’s physical features displays his unique love for loving her interior rather than her exterior. His contrasts his lovers’ breasts color with snow, describing the comparison as, “snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” (Shakespeare 3) giving a strong image of bright sparkling white snow next to an equally strong image of grayish-brown breast. This use of colour imagery is appealing towards the sense of sight by vividly contrasting snow white next to the mistress dark breast. In addition, throughout the poem there has not been an actual description, that talks about her features until the adjective (“dun”) that was applied to her. He displays his love for her simplicity honestly by comparing and contrasting her to what she is not, which show that he loves her for her rather than her appearance. The speaker then addresses her cheeks saying that he has “seen roses damasked, red and white, / But no such roses I have seen see I in her cheeks” (Shakespeare 5-6). This metaphor conveys how far from the reality of love some poems can be since there is no way that roses can be in his lovers’ cheeks, which further reinforces his mockery of cliché poems. Lastly, the speaker says that he “never saw a goddess go”, (Shakespeare 10) but his mistress walks on the ground. This use of alliteration and hyperbole reinforces the unrealistic cliché way other poets conveying the image of their lover by over exaggerating their beauty, and often compare them to goddesses. Shakespeare does not invoke the sense of touch but instead he shifts ground and in the second and third quatrains moves from visual to olfactory and auditory features of the beloved.
Meter and Structure work together in order to display the speaker’s affections towards his lover and his dislike of convectional poems. The meter of the poem decides on what type of poem it is, such as a sonnet which always takes a turn at the end of the poem. The structure develops the main ideas of the poem, which is poking fun at an exaggerated love poetry by criticizing his lover’s ordinary appearance. The poem is 14 lines long with a meter of iambic pentameter which consists of first twelve lines rhyming in alternating pairs and the last pair rhymes together. The three quatrains first twelve lines rhyme in alternating pairs which have a from lines 7 to 8 the poem just flows without punctuation to emphasize that sonnets often have a surprising twist to them towards the end; throughout majority of the poem its implied that the speaker is ridiculing his lovers appearance’s shortcomings but in reality he is stating all her flaws which he loves. There is then a use of a Volta which is a point of change in the poem, with the use of, “And yet” (Shakespeare 13) to display the speaker’s affection accurately. In addition, the speaker states that his, “love as rare / As any she belied with false compare”(Shakespeare 13-14) ,which states that his love is rare since he loves his mistress just the way she is in her flaws in all and that she is just as beautiful as the women misrepresent from the exaggerated comparisons. These quotations act like a punch line of the poem to reveal the true meaning of the poem.
Despite the fact that, the tone throughout most the poem is giving the idea that he is mocking his wife, towards the end his tone suddenly changes and revealing his true feelings for his wife and towards convectional love poems. His tone is mocking throughout most of the poem and he emphasizes her flawed feature stating that, “black wires grow on her head” (Shakespeare 4). This description of her hair implies that he is ridiculing her by insulting her but in reality, the speaker is just stating a fact and means no harm, he is just admiring her normalcy. There is a subtle positive comparison in the poem as the speaker fondly states that he loves to hear her voice despite the sound of a piano is more pleasing than speaking (Shakespeare 9).which reveals his straight forward affection for his partner and that the true tone of the poem is not to poke fun at her appearance but to instead express his love for all her imperfections while proving that he does not need to rely on false or trite comparisons to show how true his love is. Even though it seems that initially he is mocking his partner giving the idea that he is ridiculing his lover by constantly comparing her to unrealistic ideals, the couplet at the end reassures the idea of his genuine unique tribute to his partner. At this point, the speaker shifts tactics, marking the turn explicitly: “And yet…,” (Grace), this quotation delivers the speaker’s main point, that differ from other poets who also write sonnets, the speaker has no need for flowery terms or overexaggerated comparisons. The tone changes drastically from sarcastic mockery to defiant and protective tone in the final couplet. Which defies the convention in terms of unrealistically idealizing women to the point they are even compared to goddesses.
Although it seems he is mocking her outer appearance as he compares and contrasts her with the idealistic beautiful woman it is not, he is simply acknowledging her flaws rather than lie and exaggerates her exterior. Furthermore, his tribute to her is honest in such a way that his description of her isn’t rose-tinted, since instead of exaggerating how beautiful she is he does the opposite displaying how imperfect she is. In conclusion, towards the end of the poem it is shown that despite all her imperfections he has said his love was rare since his love isn’t bound by looks, but rather her inner beauty displaying his sincerity towards her. The whole point of this poem is to push back against standard ways of talking about women in poems. Women shouldn’t be unrealistically idealized to a standard that they are forced to keep up since it means that both partners love is not sincere.