The consistency of rhyme scheme (ABABCDCDEFEFGG) and rhythm underscore Shakespeare’s unwavering feelings toward his lover. Most obviously, Shakespeare uses rhyme and rhythm to make the poem more aesthetically pleasing. To communicate his many meanings, Shakespeare uses several literary devices. Shakespeare uses his sonnet to differentiate between love and lust, criticize writers who fabricate their women’s splendor, and tell readers to accept what they can not change. Perhaps, through this Shakespeare wishes to convey that all people should love themselves even though they are not perfect. Shakespeare’s woman cannot control her cheeks’ natural color or her dark hair, but Shakespeare loves her in spite of her imperfections. Since Shakespeare believes love should see flaws but be able to overlook them, he disagrees with sonnets that dismiss and distort the muse’s defects.įinally, in his deepest meaning, Shakespeare implies all people should accept imperfections they can not change.

When Shakespeare ends the sonnet commenting on ³false compare,² he basically means that a man truly in love should not falsify his lovers attributes. Contrasting conventional form with an anti-Petrarchan sonnet, one that states what the women lacks instead of what she has, Shakespeare hints that he disagrees with the common practice of praising a women for characteristics she may, but probably does not, possess. Because Shakespeare recognizes her bodily shortcomings, he uses his true love to contrast lust.Additionally, Shakespeare subtly chastises the common practice of exaggerating feminine beauty in sonnets.

A lustful man would focus on pleasing corporal characteristics, such as white breasts, red lips, and fragrant breath however, Shakespeare’s women’s ³breast are dun,² her lips not nearly as red as coral, and her breath less delightful than many perfumes. First, he commentates on love as opposed to lust. Like most of Shakespeare’s work, his 130th sonnet has meaning on several levels.

Shakespeare sonnet 130