Week 4: George Stearn

In Sonnet 130, William Shakespeare displays his mastery of the form by not only penning a successful satire of a Petrarchan blazon, but also creating an honest love poem for his mistress. With any Sonnet the first rhetorical device to examine is the form, and this one appears to be a fairly standard Shakespearean. The key difference in this poem from the majority of Shakespeare’s work is that it is a blason; namely, the poem describes a woman by singling out her individual features in turn. It can be further sub-classified as a Petrarchan blason, or a blazon where the subject is described from head to toe. Petrarch, a 16th century Italian poet, was one of the original masters of both sonnet, and blason. This style of poetry, where the subject is described from head to toe, is named for him, as he often employed it.

When one initially reads the poem it appears to be a satire; the style and form are clearly copied from Petrarch. In addition, the similes and metaphors used to describe the subject are almost negative—Shakespeare’s honestly regarding the features of his beloved would be unheard of in this sort of poetry, and he does it all with a humorous flair. For example, in line thirteen, Shakespeare reverses the stereotypical Petrarchan “soft golden hair” and instead compares her hair to black wires sprouting from her skull: “If hairs be wires black wires grow on her head” (13). However, the obvious satire is slightly undermined by the Sonnet’s resolution in the final couplet, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (13-14). Those last two lines transform the meaning of the poem, altering it from a slightly rude satire, to a tender acceptance of her virtues. In lines ten and twelve, Shakespeare begins connecting subtly to his resolution, “My mistress…treads on the ground” (12). Shakespeare’s beloved, he says, is no goddess, she walks on the ground like everyone else, and an honest expounding of her virtues is more than enough to convey the love he feels. In the last line too, “false compare” surely refers to the inaccurately flattering descriptions of other poets. It’s almost as if Shakespeare is saying that his love is greater than most because he has no need to embellish, and that the exaggerations of his peers are entirely unnecessary.