Monday, November 15, 2010

Sonnet #130

I think sonnet 130 definitely marked the beginning of a shift in the sonnets we're going over as a class. Throughout the prior ones, the theme was love and bearing children to keep beauty alive. This one is about a woman, and she's not put in a beautified light like most writers of the time would do. In fact, it appears to be mocking. The speaker is trying to make the woman seem normal instead of goddess-like. For example, in quatrain two the speaker is saying the woman doesn't have a rosy red to her cheeks, and in the words of Olivia Gosdeck, "he's implying that she has halitosis!" So he's insulting the smell of her breath. But as a thought, where did this woman randomly come from? Or does this sonnet just bring women into a real light instead of one adorned with the thoughts and glamourization goddesses?

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