Shakespearean Sonnets

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day"

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
    So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" 

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 damasked, 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. 

Both of these sonnets are sonnets about

love; however, they may not be in the way most would 

expect. The first sonnet shown above

seems to be the obvious example of a love poem.

Shakespeare is expressing how beautiful, eternal,

amazing this person is. However, the real love lies in the

second poem. The real love occurs after the puppy

love phase. The second Poem is about

really loving a person. Real love is accepting

that your significant other is not

perfect, and loving them more for it. Shakespeare

is bold to write a poem this way yet

it is much more authentic

and enjoyable to read. It is real

and tangible, not a fairytale love story.