Sonnets

Your analysis of Sonnet 73 was excellent. Let's examine a few more sonnets. This time, we'll look at at a series of sonnets by Sir Philip Sidney--108 of them. Choose a couple to read to help you ascertain the gist of Sidney's sonnets.

Shakespeare read Sir Sidney's sonnets and wrote a few in response. Check out this one to his dark-haired mistress:

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 damask'd, 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.