Sonnet 130

1
Sonnet 130

• William Shakespeare

2
Sonnet 130

• Sonnets were very popular in Elizabethan England
  and used to praise women. They were often over
  exaggerated with over the top comparisons.
• This sonnet is different as Shakespeare does not
  use hyperbole. His mistress is a real person with
  ordinary qualities.
• Shakespeare creates a direct contrast to the more
  traditional sonnet.
• Highlight within this sonnet the unusual
  qualities that Shakespeare describes of his
  mistress.
• Extension task
• Re-write the images you have identified into a
  more traditional comparison for example, My
  loves eyes are like the suns brightest beams.

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Sonnet 130

• Traditionally the final 2 lines of a sonnet sum
  up the poem. Look at the final 2 lines of this
  sonnet.
• What does Shakespeare want the reader to think in
  the final two lines?

4
Sonnet 130

• Within the 1st 6 lines there are several
  references to colour. Highlight the different
  colours?
• What is the significance of each colour?
• List the insults with the 1st 8 lines what is
  the reader meant top think when reading these
  insults?
• Line 9 contains the 1st positive comment on his
  mistress. What is it? How does he then turn this
  into an insult?
• Look at the use of rhyme in the sonnet. How are
  the last 2 lines different?
• What does the change in rhyme indicate to the
  reader?

5
Sonnet 130

• Some people feel that Shakespeare is poking fun
  at something in the poem. What do you think it is?

People who exaggerate The beauty of Their partner
Fun!!!!
His mistress
Elizabethan conventions of love poetry
Himself
The form of a sonnet
The idea of the perfect woman
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Sonnet 130

• Write a paragraph to explain how Shakespeare was
  writing to entertain in Sonnet 130. then write a
  2nd paragraph to explain how he also is making a
  serious point about how much he loves his
  mistress.

7
Sonnet 130

• Consider which poem you can compare this to with
  Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage

Armitage
Sonnet 130
DUFFY?
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Sonnet 130

• Sonnet 130 and Salome.
• Consider how both poems break the conventions.
  Sonnet 130 breaks the conventions of Elizabethan
  Love poetry and Salome of gender.
• How would you answer the following question
• How do Shakespeare and Salome do the unexpected?

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Sonnet 130

• You could comment on
• How they describe their partners.
• How they make fun of the conventions of behaviour
  and writing poetry.
• How the poems end.
• Whether you find them entertaining.
• Now plan you response.