William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing like the Sun
1My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
2Coral is far more red than her lips' red:
3If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
4If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
5I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
6But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
7And in some perfumes is there more delight
8Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
9I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
10That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
11I grant I never saw a goddess go:
12My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
13And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
14As any she belied with false compare.
Notes
4] wires. Ladies' hair was often compared to golden wire in Elizabethan poetry.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.144.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/28
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
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