Sonnet 130

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1609

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Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Link Between Beauty and Truth

One primary theme of “Sonnet 130” centers on the relationship between beauty and truth. The series of comparisons indicate a common, if not unprepossessing, woman. Based on conventional norms, the juxtapositions don’t paint the picture of an adored beauty. Again and again, the speaker brings up something typically thought of as beautiful or desirable, only to negate the mistress’s connection to that thing: Her “eyes are nothing like the sun” (Line 1), she doesn’t smell like “perfumes” (Line 7), she doesn’t sound like “music” (Line 10), and so on. As the prominent American literary critic Helen Vendler writes in The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1997), the sequence of coarse comparisons makes the first 12 lines sound “like a denigration” (557). By pointing out how the mistress isn’t like so many beautiful things, he’s more or less calling her ugly and demeaning her.

In the final two lines, the speaker clarifies his intent. His love for his mistress is “rare” (Line 13), and he doesn’t want to taint their singular bond with lies or “false compare” (Line 14). Thus, the sonnet pairs truth with beauty. Vendler writes that Shakespeare’s mistress “is a real woman, and doesn’t need any false compare to distort her attractions” (556). What makes the mistress beautiful is that she’s a genuine person. She’s not a rose or a goddess but a human being. Her humanity draws the speaker toward her. She’s beautiful because she’s real. In a sense, the sonnet anticipates the line from the famous poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) by the English romantic John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Humanity Versus Idolization

The theme of truth and beauty relates to the theme of humanity versus idolization—particularly, the sexist veneration of women. The poem tackles a large body of works that cast women in the role of otherworldly, ethereal objects. They’re not flesh and blood women but things meant mainly for adoration. For Vendler, “Sonnet 130” is a “reply poem” (536). Through the speaker, Shakespeare addresses countless poets—Plutarch, among them—who present their loved ones as an assemblage of objects or things. The speaker doesn’t want to be a part of that genre, so he parodies them by putting his mistress in opposition to longstanding beauty ideals. With “Sonnet 130,” the speaker’s goal is to challenge the idolization of women and bring women—or, at the very least, his mistress—back into the realm of earth.

The mistress is human, and the speaker shows off her human qualities. In doing so, the speaker arguably comments on the human race. Humans are far from perfect. They have faults and blemishes; they don’t always sound or smell supremely pleasant. The mistress’s flawed humanity establishes her authenticity and captures the speaker’s desires. He loves her because she isn’t an idol but an actual person. She’s not a “goddess” (Line 11); like a mortal, she “treads on the ground” (Line 12). The poem demonstrates that it’s not necessary to deify a woman to make her beautiful and striking. By forgoing fetishization—that is, turning the woman into an object—the speaker sends the message that an honest portrayal of a woman’s humanity makes her as, if not more, attractive and lovable than a woman that links to a host of supposedly beautiful, prepossessing symbols.

The Human Component of Love

The speaker only mentions “love” twice in the poem. He says, “I love to hear her speak” (Line 9). Then he remarks, “I think my love as rare” (Line 13). The two direct references to love belie its importance. The poem replies to other love poems and mocks them, but it’s also a genuine love poem. The speaker’s mistress isn’t just a means to make fun of past poets and their fetishistic diction or words. What also propels the speaker to write the sonnet is his deep love for the mistress. While the mistress might come across as common or vulgar, the love is unique, and its singularity comes from the mistress’s departure from typical beauty norms. The speaker loves her because she deviates from conventional notions of attractiveness. If the speaker didn’t love her, he’d lack the inspiration for the poem. The mistress, as she is in reality, is his muse.

The speaker’s love turns her seemingly uninspiring traits into points of attraction. The speaker says, “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound” (Lines 9-10). The speaker loves to listen to his mistress talk because she doesn’t sound like delightful music. The love turns this supposed negative into a positive and arguably shows the error of measuring love through a woman’s connection to objects. What makes a great love isn’t how a mistress’s eyes, lips, cheeks, smell, or sound link to glorified ideals—it’s how these things link back to her personhood and humanity. The speaker declares, “I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (Lines 13-14), so an extraordinary love defies established norms. Love isn’t about presenting the loved one as an object but as the person they are. In the poem, love is about people, not items or celestial states.