130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Question 1

Summary:

1 quatrain

2 quatrain

3 quatrain

Couplet

Answer 1

1. My love is the opposite of a petrachan love
2. More of the same
3. My love is lovely without being hyperbolic about it, also she is not a goddess, but a person
4. But I’m way more fortunate than any hyperbole

Question 2

Quatrains 1 and 2 analysis

Answer 2

• Anti- petrarchan conceits
  
  • No longer an idol - immediatly dismisses
• Comparing to ‘snow’ to say it is opposite
• Mocks these hyperbolic comparisons - ‘if hairs be wires’ juxtaposed to be ‘if snow be white’ - subverts petrarchan conceit, emphasises ugliness to conventional beauty standards - humorous
• ‘Red and white’ - Venus and Adonis - not in godly world of poetry

Question 3

Analyse quatrain 3

Answer 3

• Final quatrain less amusingly mocking, more straightforward, honest
• ‘Yet well I know’ - he is not deceived, he can enjoy her company for what it is without the need for hyperbole - she is a woman not an idol
• ‘Goddess go’ - Venus in Venus and Adonis - again, not fiction, but fact
• ‘Treads on the ground’ - not spiritual, earthly, a real human. Better because REAL

Question 4

Couplet analysis

Answer 4

• ‘By heaven’ - alludes back to spiritual petrarchan love, proving can be as valued without hyperbole of ‘false compare’
• Better because real