Shakespeare and Petrarch

Since we haven’t read poems in class yet, this was obviously a lot different from what we have read so far. I am generally not very good at understanding poems so therefore; this was quite a challenge for me to understand.

I thought that this poem was very random and scattered. It discussed the mistress and her different characteristics. At the beginning of the poem, Shakespeare describes his mistress as an ugly and unappealing woman.

“If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun”

“And in some perfumes is there more delight than in the breath that my mistress reeks.”

Dun is a dull grayish-brown color, meaning he called his mistress ugly. But interestingly enough, toward the end of the poem, he seems to change his mind and thoughts. He also says that his mistress “reeks,” or smells horribly. He compares her to perfume and says how perfume smells a lot better than his mistress. He ends the poem by making his wife sound more loving and I could tell that he really did love her, despite her “ugly” characteristics.

“And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare. As any she belied with false compare.”

He turns his words around and makes it seem like he really did love his mistress. He says that it was a misrepresentation of his mistress. This is why I thought that this poem was very scattered. It was short and had two very different opinion of his mistress that changed very dramatically.