What is unusual about the mistress in sonnet 130

And she has dark hair that stands out like wires. Imagine that, comparing your lover's hair to strands of thin metal. Note the comma in both lines, a parallel, so the reader has to pause, breaking the rhythm, telling us that this is no ordinary poetic journey.

The second quatrain takes the reader a little deeper and in the paired lines five and six the notion that this mistress is not your ideal female model is reinforced. She doesn't have rosy cheeks, even if the speaker has seen plenty of natural damask roses in the garden.

If the classic, lovely and fragrant English Rose is absent, at least this mistress has no pretence to a sweet smelling breath. Her breath reeks, which may mean stinks or may mean rises. Some say that in Shakespeare's time the word reeks meant to emanate or rise, like smoke. Others claim it did mean smell or stink. Certainly in the context of the previous line—some perfume—the latter meaning seems more likely.

The third quatrain introduces the reader to the mistress's voice and walk and offers up no extraordinary claims. She speaks and walks normally. She hasn't a musical voice; she uses her feet to get around. This is nitty gritty reality Shakespeare is selling the reader. No airs and graces from his mistress. Use of irony here is exceptional. Come on. So to the final couplet, a full rhyming affirmation of the speaker's love for the woman, his mistress.

Not only is the speaker being blatantly honest in this sonnet, he is being critical of other poets who put forward false claims about woman. He's not prepared to do that, preferring instead to enhance his mistress's beauty, deepen his love for her. In being brutally open, candid and unconventional, the speaker has ironically given his mistress a heightened beauty, simply because he doesn't dote on her outward appearance.

The dominant metre is iambic pentameter, five iambic feet per line, non-stressed syllable followed by a stressed in da DUM da DUM fashion. However, there are lines which differ from this steady, plodding beat. Iambic pentameter dominates this sonnet and there are a total of 10 purely iambic lines: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and Line 2 begins with an inverted iambic foot—a trochee—with the stress on the first syllable, which alters the flow somewhat before the iambic beat takes over.

Line 3 is ambiguous. Some scan it as purely iambic, others find an inverted iamb—a trochee—after the comma: If snow be white , why then her breasts are dun. Line 4 is also not straightforward. There are a possible two trochees after the comma: If hairs be wires , black wires grow on her head.

Line 5 begins with an inverted iamb—a trochee—placing emphasis on the first person I. My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:. But I know that my mistress walks only on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare. As any woman who has been misrepresented by ridiculous comparisons.

Are all the Sonnets addressed to two Persons? Who was The Rival Poet? The face and features of Shakespeare as 'imaged' in that portrait are those with which his readers are probably most familiar. It is not easy to account for this, since the Chandos Portraitportrait is certainly not the first in point of genuineness, whatever may be its degree of artistic merit.

The tone of the poem is mocking. The tone becomes one of reassurance in the last two lines. The speaker talks about how his true love comes from his mistress' human attributes. He understands that she is not a goddess or the "ideal woman," but to him she is everything.

How is Sonnet different from other poems? This poem can be seen as a satirical and funny sonnet, or it can be viewed as a serious poem that expresses true love. What is the speaker feeling at the beginning of Sonnet 29? In Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare, the speaker's feelings change from the first quatrain to the final couplet by: They change from misery to thankfulness.

The first quatrain shows how the speaker is dwelling in self-pity. The second quatrain shows the speaker's wishful thinking or jealousy. How many lines are in a quatrain? What point does Shakespeare make in the first twelve lines of his sonnet? What does this final couplet from Sonnet suggest about the speaker's feelings? His love has been misrepresented through false comparisons.

His love is as charming as any of those who are praised by false comparisons. True love lasts forever and nothing in heaven can stop it.

What is a battery made of? Co-authors 3.