Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Share it Please
I had Sonnet 130, which is an unconventional reversal of the usual Petrarchan mode of comparing the beloved to everything beautiful. Sonnet 130 instead functions as a humorous blazon, in which different aspects of his mistress' body are shown coming short of the poetical ideal. ("If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.") The octet insults the object of the sonnet, but at the volta the speaker transitions to a softer tone, explaining that while "music hath a far more pleasing sound" than her voice, he "think[s] [his] love as rare / As any she belied with false compare." In other words, the speaker knows his lover is far from perfect, but he loves her nonetheless, and she pleases him far more than a "goddess."

Sonnets 131 &141 echo these sentiments by saying that though some say his lover's face isn't beautiful enough to "make love groan," he finds her capacity to wound him undiminished. Basically, "My dear, you have many flaws, but I'm infatuated with you anyway."

Sonnet 53 is similar to 130 in form (almost opposite in idea), because in it there is
- a  blazon, or catalog of the beloved's physical attributes compared to other people or objects
- the rhyme scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
- an ending couplet celebrating the goodness of his mistress' heart, similarly to 130

4 comments:

  1. The many flaws but still love is so so sweet (hahaha. Not really). Good use of blazon! Awesome analysis!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Geez, Micah, I forgot how intimidating it is to be in your class because your comments are all dang good... I was amazed at how you summarized the poem- you did it in official-sounding poetical terminology, which is obviously the goal here. Great analysis. For the sake of being picky, I think you last sentence should read "similar to 130" instead of "similarly," but that's not really important.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you're right . . . "similar to 130" sounds better, anyway
      Thanks for pointing that out

      Delete
    2. I think you're right . . . "similar to 130" sounds better, anyway
      Thanks for pointing that out

      Delete

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