When choosing which Shakespeare sonnet to write this week's assignment on, I immediately went for my favorite. I've read sonnet 130 before and already had a pretty solid interpretation. With that already carved into my mind, the task of choosing another interpretation proved difficult. Alas, I've figured it out! The first interpretation that I'm sure the majority of readers will incur, is that Shakespeare is writing this sonnet about how different his love for his mistress is, because she is not perfect and beautiful, which makes what they have extra special. The second interpretation I conjured up hits more of a non-emotional point. That is, in writing an "anti-petrarchan" sonnet, Shakespeare is able seperate himself from the norm and show that like a less appealing mistress, exploring out-of-the norm can be just as sweet.

Throughout the entire poem, Shakespeare gives great descriptions of the less-than-perfect woman, who happens to be his mistress. I think this fact is significant because a mistress is probably looked down upon more than a spouse or fair lover. Not only is she somewhat of a "dog," but she is also socially shunned. Of course all that seems to be putting this woman down is proved incorrect by the couplet, which says, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare,/ As any she belied with false compare" (13-14). Here we get the truth that the speaker is actually in love with this woman despite her unsatisfactory appearance, which shows that Shakespeare can see that all people are still human and are capable of being loved no matter who they are or how bad they look. It is a sound poet that gives endearing features to the speaker, whom we might assume to be Shakespeare himself. I love the lines three and four, which use the opposite colors of red and black to compare certain body parts on a woman. I'm not sure what the rhetoric term for this is, though I'm sure there has to be something about using opposites to compare different thing in two lines. Maybe I'm wrong, but it certainly jumped out at me. The lines say, "If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;/If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." The significance of this is just Shakespeare pointing out the fact that what he's writing about is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect in a love sonnet. An apostrophe is also used here when Shakespeare seems to pose a question to no one who will answer it. The fact that she has dirty, grayish-brown breasts is just something to ponder over. And once you picture it you start to think that the speaker must really be a great guy for still being with his mistress.

My second interpretation is completley different. This sonnet can be taken as a satire on the formal petrarchan form for a couple of reasons. First, it deals with a mistress not a fair lover or mysterious woman, and second, it declares that she is pretty much gross as opposed to a perfect ten. And yet, the really amazing part is that we still enjoy the poem. In fact, I like it much more than I do the love sonnets about how wonderful and perfect the women their speakers pine over are. And it can be argued that Shakespeare is really trying to tell us this. Not just that you can love someone despite their physical faults, but that you can love a sonnet too even when it's not followed in the normal format. For instance, in lines five through six which read, "I have seen roses demasked, red and white,/ But no such roses see I in her cheeks;" these comparisons can also be a metaphor for typical sonnets. Usually beauty is seen in them, but literally there is none in this sonnet. I think you could attribute this metaphor to almost any of the line comparisons. They're all basically saying that the mistress is lacking something, just like Shakespeare's anti-Petrarchan poem does. And all of it can be taken as satire because it makes fun of the unrealistic portrayal of every lady a sonnet writer has written about. It's truly a great poem, as it has such a great capability of forming different interpretations. These are simply the two that seemed most fitting.