"My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" by William Shakespeare

It would probably take one's lifetime to fully examine Shakespeare and his works. Here I will only focus on the poem we read in class——"My Mistress's Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun."

My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun

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 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 hatch 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.

This poem is very different from other love poems that beautify their love or their loved one. These poems generally describe the woman as if they are angels from heaven. For instance, in "There is a Garden in Her Face," the persona compares the loved one's face to a garden. In contrast, this poem by Shakespeare is very honest in its description of the loved one. He portrays her as the very opposite of standards of beauty. Of course, this does not mean that he does not love her. At the end, the persona says "I think my love as rare/ As any she, belied with false compare." He says that his lover is different from other women, and that it is not her appearance that he is in love with.

This poem also is different from other love poems written by Shakespeare. Below are a verse from the famous play Romeo and Juliet and one of his famous sonnets.

From Romeo And Juliet

Love is a smoke made with a fume of sighs;

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears.What is it else? A madness most discreet,A chocking gall and a preserving sweet.



Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day? (Sonnet 18)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Unlike "My Mistress' Eyes..." these two poems (I will just call them both "poems" here for the convenience of writing) rather exaggerate the love of the persona. Descriptions such as "a smoke made with a fume of sighs" or "a sea nourished with lovers' tears" are very unrealistic. Sonnet 18 is also very different from "My Mistress's Eyes..." in that it praises the beauty of the persona's lover.