Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Quiz: Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare

1. Recall – Form: What type of poem is Sonnet 130, and how many lines does it contain? What is the name given to the final two lines that deliver the poem's emotional turning point?

1. Recall – Context: To which group of Shakespeare's sonnets does Sonnet 130 belong, and what name is given to the female figure addressed in this group?

1. Recall – Key Image: What word does Shakespeare use to describe the color of his mistress's skin, and how does this contrast with the Petrarchan ideal described in the analysis?

1. Recall – Key Image: Shakespeare uses a wire metaphor to describe his mistress's hair. How does his version of this image differ from the conventional Petrarchan version, and what does the analysis suggest this difference implies?

1. Comprehension – Tone: How does the analysis describe the overall tone of Sonnet 130? In what way does the poem avoid being cruel despite its repeated listing of the mistress's "failures"?

1. Comprehension – Vocabulary: The analysis highlights one word in the poem as its "most humorous moment" because of a shift in meaning over time. Which word is it, what did it mean in Shakespeare's day, and why is it still considered funny to modern readers?

1. Comprehension – The Volta: Where does the volta occur in Sonnet 130, and what idea does it introduce that reframes everything that came before it?

1. Analysis – Petrarchanism: What was Petrarchanism, and why does the analysis suggest that Shakespeare's rejection of its conventions is itself an act of love poetry rather than simply a critique?

1. Analysis – Symbol: The analysis identifies "treading on the ground" as a key symbol in the poem. What does this image represent thematically, and how does it contrast with the conventions of classical poetry?

1. Analysis – Theme: The analysis identifies "false compare" as the poem's true target. In your own words, explain what Shakespeare is arguing about the relationship between honesty and love, and how the structure of the sonnet supports that argument.

Answer Key

1. Sonnet 130 is a Shakespearean (English) sonnet containing 14 lines. The final two lines form a couplet, which delivers the poem's emotional reversal.

1. It belongs to the "Dark Lady" sonnets (Sonnets 127–154). The female figure addressed is known as the Dark Lady, characterized by dark hair and eyes.

1. Shakespeare uses the word "dun" (a dull grayish-brown) to describe her skin, which directly contrasts with the porcelain-white or snow-white complexion idealized in Petrarchan poetry.

1. Petrarchan poetry conventionally praised a woman's hair by comparing it to golden wires. Shakespeare keeps the wire metaphor but changes the color to black, suggesting that his mistress is a real, unembellished person rather than a poetic ideal.

1. The tone is described as wry and affectionate, with a dry comic edge. The poem avoids cruelty because the speaker's humor is deadpan and the final couplet reveals genuine warmth — he is mocking the clichés of other poets, not attacking his mistress.

1. The word is "reeks." In Shakespeare's time, it simply meant "emanates" or "breathes out," but it already carried an unpleasant connotation that Shakespeare exploited for comic effect — and modern readers find it even more striking given the word's current meaning.

1. The volta occurs in the final couplet (the last two lines). It introduces the idea that his love is just as genuine and deep as any love expressed through exaggerated flattery — reframing the whole list of "failures" as proof of honest devotion.

1. Petrarchanism was a dominant Renaissance poetic tradition, derived from the Italian poet Petrarch, that required poets to idealize women through a fixed set of extravagant comparisons (eyes like the sun, lips like coral, skin like snow, etc.). The analysis argues that Shakespeare's rejection of these clichés becomes its own love poem because it substitutes honesty for hollow flattery, making his affection more authentic and meaningful.

1. "Treading on the ground" symbolizes his mistress's real humanity — she is an ordinary person, not a goddess gliding above the earth as classical poetry would have it. Thematically, it represents all the qualities that make her genuine rather than a poetic fiction.

1. Shakespeare argues that true love is grounded in honesty, not in embellishment. By spending most of the sonnet dismantling false comparisons and then declaring his love equal to any in the final couplet, the poem's very structure enacts this argument: the truth is saved for last, and it carries more weight precisely because it has not been decorated with lies.