Thursday, September 30, 2010

My mistress' eyes by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare. Enough said. The man never ceases to amaze me with his brutal honesty and tragic approaches to love. However blunt the honesty, I respect the speaker for pointing out the imperfections of his mistress like her wired hair, darker skin, color-less cheeks, and boring lips. For the speaker however, these imperfections are what made him perfectly love her. Even though she appears to be falling short in the beauty department, his love for her is extraordinary.

I love the satire here because often times poets and writers get a bit out of hand with their lyrical poems and odes to women. The mushy-gushy wording builds up falsities about the realness of these women being expressed. In "My mistress' eyes," the speaker refuses to compare his mistress to a goddess, for she is not a goddess. She is human and is described with the imperfections which accompany people. In reality, no one is perfect, and yet most end up being loved for just that.

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