- 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 damasked, 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.
William Shakespeare (1864-1616) is considered the greatest English poet – and perhaps one of the greatest poets of any language – to put pen to paper. The general reading public usually demonstrates an increased interest in his work, especially his sonnets on love, around Valentine’s Day.
- Sonnet 4 from Sonnets from the Dark Lady
- “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”
- Milord makes rare parade of his emotions.
- Completing undertakings at the pew,
- No braggart sagas follow his devotions;
- His myths are masked, reported visions few.
- Inviting me to drink but not to dance,
- He sheds no tears departing from my bed.
- He has one sole, uninterrupted glance.
- I have for faith the sacrificed unsaid.
- Many a diva gets her burning word,
- Chocolate oblations brandied, blessed, hot-toddied.
- I have for heat the hidden and unheard,
- An incandescent, backwards disembodied,
- And would – for naught and nothing – make a trade
- For pageants staged within him, well-displayed.
Jennifer Reeser is a poet, critic, and a translator of French and Russian literature. Her sonnet in response to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 appeared in her 2012 volume Sonnets from the Dark Lady & Other Poems. Her most recent book is Indigenous: Poems (Able Muse Press, 2018).