Shakespeare - Sonnet 130 **My favorite since I was in high school**

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130

Shakespeare breaks with convention and creates a parody of tired Petrarchan ideals. His lover has wires for hairs, her lips are not red as coral, her breasts are dingy brown and her breath reeks. Praise beauty? Not in 'Sonnet 130'. Yet his love for her runs deeper?

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know..." - Sonnet 130, by William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare | My Mistress' Eyes: Sonnet 130.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she…

William Shakespeare