("My mistress' eye" - William Shakespeare)
Central theme: Too many authors use romantic cliches in poetry that do not hold true with every individual.
I love how Shakespeare can insult poets and totally get away with it. I wish I was as creative and witty.
In this poem, Shakespeare exaggerates qualities that are often glorified by poets by pairing the qualities with negative diction. For example, instead of "hair like spun gold," the author describes the mistress' hair as "black wires" growing on her head. Instead of using this typical cliche, Shakespeare describes the hair with a seemingly oxymoron-ish twist. When I first think of black wires, I think of garbage. However, beautiful art can be made from wires. Therefore, the definition of beauty varies from person to person. The woman Shakespeare is describing is not stereotypically beautiful. To illustrate, she does not have "roses" in her cheeks and her lips are not the color of "coral." However, the woman's natural appearance is beautiful to the speaker. This poem proves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Stereotypes used in poetry do not describe what is beautiful to every person in the world.
The excerpt above is taken from the conclusion of the poem. This quote signaled a change in idea and tone because the speaker directly states "And yet...". In this excerpt, the speaker is saying that love in poetry is as rare as woman being lied to with false comparisons. This statement is sarcastic; love in poetry is not rare (in fact, many people believe poetry can only be about love). Shakespeare is criticizing his fellow poets and challenging them to use a little originality in their works.
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