Explication PLEASE!

Can someone PLEASE, explicate Sonnet 130 My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun. I know I asked for compare and contrast in a post awhile ago, but now It would be much appreciated if I could get a line by line explication of the sonnet. It would help me a great deal with my research paper.
THANK YOU in advance

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.

Hello Dez

You might want to look up a poem by Philip Sidney (a contemporary of Shakespeare's) called 'What tongue can her perfections tell'.

In this sonnet, Shakespeare plays against the traditional catalogue of comparisons, such as that in Sidney's poem.

There are similar poems in the sonnet sequences of Spenser, Sidney, Daniel, and Drayton. I don't have them to hand at the moment, but will see if I can find them before I next log on.

MrP

By: Brent Portal                                                                                                                                                                                                                 March 14, 2007

Poetry Explication

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” beautifully depicts a mans love for his mistress by realities eyes, though the woman is a far cry from the popular ideals of a woman’s beauty at the time: (Line 1) “ My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun” (Line 4) If hairs be wires black wires grow on her head.” He’s trying to prove a mans love for a woman doesn’t have to be for her beautiful godlike body, carved by nature, but rather and honest and deep relationship.

“Sonnet 130” dramatizes the fact that beauty is only skin deep. The whole “Sonnet 130” poem is condescending to all the love poems such as Thomas Campion’s “There Is A Garden In Her Face,” and other poems of the time declaring how beautiful there women is and how special there love is. Love poems such as “There is a Garden In Her Face” declare how beautiful there lover is and compare there lovers to things in nature: (Line 10 of Campion’s “There Is A Garden In Her Face.”) “They look like Rose-buds fill’d with snow.” These annoyingly repetitive poems are most likely where Shakespeare got his inspiration for “Sonnet 130” where he to is repetitive on his comparisons to nature: (line 1) “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun/ corral is far more red than here lips’ red/ If Snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.”

What the speaker is saying is his mistress’ looks are nothing of natures beauty: (line 4) “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (line 6) “But no such roses see I in her cheeks.” But that his love is still rare and great all the same. He doesn’t need those qualities sought out by many men for him to be happy and her imperfections are what he admires and loves most about her. (line 9) “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound.” Although she doesn’t have an angel like voice, he still loves to talk and listen to her. It is also evident in the couplet (lines 13-14) “And Yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ as any she belied with false compare.”

To go even further, you could say that Shakespeare is describing what he thinks a relationship should be for, personality and inner beauty, not only for the outside beauty which may not be a reflection of there personality at all. He seems to shun the Hollywood like fantasies of most people and is the reason why he makes a mockery of other love poems.