Sonnet 130

Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare is one of his more peculiar sonnets. Not only does he stray from the usual sonnet style of over-praising someone but he uses the widely known literary device of simile in a completely different manner. Shakespeare does this in a way that, at first, seems to insult women however his twist on the use of similes is a way to see women for what they truly are.

 Many poets use such a literary device to portray things in a more positive manner, such as “her eyes glittered like the shining star in the night sky” which over-exaggerates the features of a girl. One’s eyes cannot really glitter, that is only possible in a person’s relative perspective. Shakespeare looks at women in a more realistic view. He uses similes to describe a woman’s natural beauty not some falsified over-exaggerated “goddess” of a woman that no real women can compare.

He ends the sonnet with the couplet, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/   As any she belied with false compare.” Here he is comparing his love for this woman in her natural state to the “love” others feel towards women who are over-exemplified. The simile in this couplet is to show that women are beautiful just the way they are naturally and do not need to change themselves nor do they have to be compared to false deities to be loved.