Shakespeare Sonnet 130 Tone

During the time period of which sonnets were most relevant, most sonnets were made to revel and praise a woman’s beauty.William Shakespeare wrote sonnet 130 for which this was not the case, sonnet 130 could almost be perceived as an insult. Shakespeare wrote this sonnet as a way of criticizing other sonnets that compare these women and portray them to be so heavenly and lovely. Throughout the sonnet, Shakespeare gives the poem a sarcastic tone which becomes evident at the end. Shakespeare gives subtle hints to the tone through word choice that the reader is able to pick up on, as the sonnet progresses . Through his word choice in lines nine and ten, he says “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music has a far more pleasing sound.” His word choice in this helps develop the tone and help the

Shakespeare sarcastically portraying through his work stating, that no matter the beauty of the women that most people convey through their sonnets are not as they are portrayed . Throughout the lady being conveyed is clearly being shown as someone who you would not think very much of, but that is where Shakespeare develops the tone even further by what he says in line eleven and twelve. In the lines Shakespeare states “ I never saw a goddess go: my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground,” in this line he comes out and says she is no goddess. In the turn of the sonnet Shakespeare comes out after everything he has previously said and says “ yet by heaven, I think my love as rare.” As he says this the reader is better able to see the sarcasm in the sonnet as what he has portrayed as saying that she may not be like the girls that are played out to be everything from heaven and above, but the love they have is more than rare which is more than he could ask