Shakespeare's Sonnets: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Shakespeare's Sonnets: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Sonnet 130

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): h4r.
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't, 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;
13    And yet by heav'n I think my love as rare
14    As any she belied with false compare.

Notes

3] dun] "dull greyish brown" (OED, "dun," a. 1). Back to Line
4] "Ladies' hair was often compared to golden wire in Elizabethan poetry" (F. D. Hoeniger). Back to Line
5] damask't] carnation-coloured. "Apparently, originally the Rosa gallica var. damascena, a tall shrub with semi-double pink or light-red (rarely white) flowers, cultivated in the East for attar of roses; but this underwent many changes under cultivation in the West, and the name has been very variously applied by English authors" (OED, "damask," n. and a.). Back to Line
8] reeks] exhales (like smoke). Back to Line
11] go] walk. Back to Line
13] heav'n] heauen Q. Back to Line
14] she] her. belied] beli'd Q ("lied about"). compare] comparison. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet