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, 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 walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

-William Shakespeare

Love this beautifully phrased sonnet by William Shakespeare. If you do not feel the intensity of the sonnet after reading it, then try it in Alan Rickman’s (the actor who portrayed Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series) voice. A little bit of research on the internet (or Interweb as Tracy Jordan calls it!) would tell you that Shakespeare is taking on writings by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, who used to compare, Laura de Noves, the woman who made him give up priesthood. He wrote love poems dedicated to this woman, which were rather exclamatory in nature.  He personified elements of the nature that were easy on the eye and compared them to the woman who fascinated him. Such comparisons were both improbable and highly ignorant.

Shakespeare penned down this Sonnet, taking inspiration from the 15th century Trinity College educated British philosopher, George Gascoigne.  He compares his woman(if only Shakespeare was a gangsta rapper from the streets of Brooklyn), with his feet pretty much on the ground. He goes on to say that he knows that she is no where close to the beauties of nature, her fragrance isn’t the most enchanting one and uses metaphors that one would never use to describe a woman, whom you passionately love.  He pretty much knows that she is not an artwork of supernatural perfection, but the only reason he wants to be with her, is that he loves her, despite how she looks or smells.

And for the Alan Rickman performance