Sonnet 130 Blog Post- Sarabeth Hogshire

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is a very unique poem. In this poem a man is describing the woman he loves, which in itself is not very original, however it is the manner in which he describes her that is so unusual. As readers, what we expect to hear when a man describes his love, is how beautiful she is. He might even exaggerate her beauty by comparing her to something like a rose, or a summer’s day.
In this poem, the speaker is honest about his love, and depicts her how she truly is. He makes very unexpected comparisons such as “I have seen roses damasked, red and white, but no such roses I see in her cheeks.” When you first read the poem, his portrayal of her seems very harsh, until you get to the last two lines which read:
“And yet by heaven I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.”
Shakespeare’s speaker is not mocking his love in this poem, instead Shakespeare is mocking overly exaggerated love poems which we often see. The speaker is also saying that the woman he loves is not some beautiful goddess typically described in love poems. Instead, he is saying that his love for her is more genuine and rare because he sees her for how she truly is, and that person is who he loves. That makes his love even more special because it is based on reality, not some idealized false idealized vision of her that he created.