False Comparison In Sonnet 130

When you develop an interest over somebody else, you would usually claim that this certain individual was the best. Sonnet 130, in contrary, took a diverging path through doing the exact opposite. With the phrase “false compare” as what I believe is the core representation of the poem, it breaks free from the usual love Petrarchan sonnets and utilizes a satiric method to express the speaker’s love to his mistress in a disparate way. Instead of expressing exaggerating superiors towards his mistress’s appearance, smell and voice, the speaker finds these thoughts to be skeptical and attempts to deny these “false comparisons” through negations. The speaker focuses on being realistic about the beauty of his mistress. Moreover, I believe that creative use of literary devices play an important role in not only supporting the phrase “false compare”, yet also identifying the complex flow and meaning behind the simple 14 - lined poem.

The very first line of the poem, which states, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” the word “like” and the comparison between his mistress’ eyes with the sun, introduces the presence of similes and metaphors in the poem. Just from the first line, it gives a clear picture that the speaker does not attempt to exaggerate any factors about his mistress. Instead, he was being truthful by stating that her eyes are nothing, clearly not as bright, as the sun. At first, it might seem as if he was projecting an insult, however instead of that, the