Which statement best explains the two possible interpretations of the sonnet?
Abe
Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130."
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go, -
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
The three quatrains satirize common poetic
comparisons of one's beloved to beautiful things,
suggesting that the speaker's feelings are not strong.
However, the sudden reversal in tone in the final
couplet surprises and moves through its sincerity
and depth of feeling, suggesting strong emotions.
The speaker ridicules his mistress through his
negative comparisons of her to idealized objects in
the first 12 lines, which implies that he has lost
interest in her. kn, the final couplet, though, he
humorously reverses his tone and exaggerates her
charms, from which readers can infer that he is
being playful rather than hurtful.
Some readers believe that the speaker uses satire
to ridicule his mistress. Others find that his tone
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