Gender Blog Post #4

My Mistresss' Eyes by William Shakespeare
1. The speaker draws a contrast between the qualities often praised in exaggerated love poetry and the reality of his mistress' physical attributes. Construct the series of "false compare[isons]" that this poem implies other poets have used (for example, eyes as bright as the sun, hair like spun gold, etc).
2. What is the speaker's tone in lines 1-12? Is there anything about those lines that his mistress might find pleasing? (In Shakespeare's time the words "reeks" did not have its modern denotation of "stinks.")

 I enjoyed this poem. It didn't seem like many of Shakespeare's other poems where I had no idea what the heck he was talking about at all. This one made sense to me. I find the speaker to be a realist in the sense that he isn't painting his mistress to be completely perfect and like completely void of any flaws. He lets her come of as a real person. She doesn't have eyes that shine like the sun or the reddest lips in the world. She also doesn't have the perfect snow-white skin that is exaggerated in many love poems. The speaker says his mistress' hair is like black wire and that he doesn't see rosy red cheeks. Finally, her breath smells sometimes, her voice isn't like the chirping of birds to him, and the way she walks is not like an angel floating on air. I think this poem is bringing to light the unrealistic love poems that paint the woman in them as being completely perfect. There are somethings that could be found pleasing in this poem though. It is not all just saying how imperfect she is. He doesn't say her breath smells all the time, and he still loves to hear her speak. So there are some positives in the poem. I would rather have this love poem said to me than any other one because I know the other unrealistic and exaggerated love poems would be complete lies. I would smack the man I love if he told me I had perfect skin and golden hair and walked like a goddess. He would probably be making fun of me and try to make it a joke. I'd hope I wouldn't love someone who was being completely serious about that nonsense. The speaker says, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare 885). The speaker is being real with the woman he loves. He has a rare love because he can be real and recognize that she has flaws, but she is not all flawed. He still loves her regardless of the  imperfect things and doesn't try to cover it up and lie about it to his mistress.