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MY MISTRESS’S EYES...........

William Shakespeare

Amazingly unconventional and subtle in argumentation, memorable for its blunt, but

charming sincerity and perhaps uncompromisingly popular among students and teachers of

Shakespeare, sonnet CXXX reminds us of Shakespeare’s aphoristic statement on beauty in

his “Love’s Labours Lost”: ‘Beauty is not bought by judgment of the eye; Not utter’d by base

sale of chapmen’s tongues.’

The poet speaks in playful derision of the extravagant comparisons which were used

by the poets of his time, and finds his mistress not good enough to fit into them. At the outset,

we are inclined to believe that Shakespeare finds his mistress unattractive, but this

impression changes as we complete reading the poem. Her beauty cannot be compared to that

of nature or of a goddess for she is a mortal human being, yet for the poet who truly loves

her, she is the most beautiful woman, and is as ‘rare’ as any woman ‘belied with false

compare.’

As usual with Shakespeare, the concluding heroic couplet is of marked thematic

importance and after the presentation of his argument on beauty in the first three quatrains,

he returns to the Petrachan theme of unconditional love in the last two lines. The poet insists

on honesty in love and disregards over-exaggerated comparisons used by lovers and in love

poetry. For him, love is not a quest for perfect beauty. Note his frankness when he talks

about the odour of his mistress’s breath:

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks

In Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline”, Iachimo compares Imogen to Venus [Cythera] and

tells her that her breath was like perfume. Iachimo was not a true-lover, but a villain who had
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thought of seducing Imogen. But the honest poet here, with all his true love for the mistress,

confesses that the breath that his mistress ‘reeks’ is not as delightful as perfume.

The theme of imperfection, which recurs in the works of Shakespeare, may also be

associated with this poem. In a world where all that exist is subject to imperfection and

inevitable decay, Shakespeare might have felt that it would be unconvincing to glorify a

mortal human beauty over the beauty of nature or of a goddess. Furthermore, Shakespeare

distinguishes reality from idealism. He stresses on reality and practicality in his description

of the lady who does not deserve the hyperbolical comparisons and therefore another

important theme conveyed in this poem is the importance of reality and truthfulness,

particularly when it comes to love.

The poet’s use of wit and humour is noteworthy since it is somewhat uncommon in

the sonnets of Shakespeare and with his humorous tone loaded with irony and satire;

Shakespeare successfully attacks the traditional Elizabethan and Petrachan love poets, using

common images found in their poetry against them. However there is a slight alteration of

tone in the lines:

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

More than saying that music is superior to the lady’s voice, to my mind, the poet tells

us that he prefers to hear when his mistress speaks, even though music has a ‘far more

pleasing sound’. The overall effect of the line is achieved by the emphasis of ‘I love to hear

her speak’ which becomes apparent in a loud reading of the poem.

The notable shift of tone takes place in the concluding rhyming couplets and where

Shakespeare avows his unconditional love, his voice is full of love and emotion; the blunt

humour turns into a philosophical seriousness:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare;

As any she belied with false compare.
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Having carelessly dispensed more than a half of his words to create an unattractive

picture of the mistress, he changes his direction, glorifying his love for this woman.

Regardless of her unattractiveness, his love makes him think that she is as beautiful and

unique as any other woman and to mark this change, the poet uses a mild and affectionate

tone that has a wonderful impact on the reader.

Shakespeare who does not respect the sestet-octave convention of Petrach, structures

his sonnets to have three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet and this structure

contributes to the development of his theme. He initiates his argument on beauty in the first

line and the three quatrains then present and develop his argument. The concluding heroic

couplet provides him the opportunity to convey his theme explicitly. The separation of the

three quatrains and the couplet is highlighted by the “ababcdcdefefgg” rhyme scheme and the

iambic pentameter of the verse is also significant; as it resembles the metre of human speech,

it gives more emphasis to what is said rather that how it is said.

Like all the other sonnets of Shakespeare, this sonnet is also rich in its verbal texture.

The poem is a parody of traditional love poetry and the poet, making reference to some of his

rival poets, uses a number of images frequently encountered in courtly love poetry such as

sun, corals, golden wires, roses etc. The visual quality of these images is undoubtedly

praiseworthy since they are capable of creating the image of the ‘dark lady’ who is believed

to be the addressee of some of the Shakespearean sonnets. In particular, the use of the word,

‘dun’ is capable of creating an image of a woman’s breasts of ‘dull dingy brown’ colour that

confirms the idea of dark lady. Moreover, there is onomatopoeia in words such as ‘dun’,

‘black wires’, ‘reeks’ and ‘pleasing’ since the poet uses the sounds of these words to

emphasise the meaning of them, thereby enhancing the feelings evoked in the poem.

On the whole, this is a poem that appeals not only to our emotion, but also to our

intellect. At one level it is a humorous poem that talks about an unattractive woman, but at

another level, it is a deeply philosophical statement on love. Captivated by the

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unpretentiousness and the philosophy of Shakespeare, I feel that Shakespeare teaches the

world how to write true love poetry.