- Published: December 23, 2021
- Updated: December 23, 2021
- University / College: The University of Western Australia
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 26
Sonnet 130 is widely perceived as a parody of the routine love sonnets. Shakespeare takes no qualms in projecting a very realistic image of his mistress, yet he claims that his love finds her just as special and extra-ordinary as any other Goddess. What’s interesting is that in this poem, Shakespeare doesn’t glorify the beauty of the mistress or anything remotely connected by using an elaborate metaphor. He doesn’t make any comparisons with his love for Venus either. He reflects on the ordinary beauty and the humanity associated with a mortal in his love. He feels that the aforementioned attributes are very important. He makes a deliberate attempt to use those typical metaphors of love poetry in the opposite context. (TimeOut)
On the other hand, the poem Beauty by Tony Hoagland is the poet’s reflection of his sister and her obsession with meeting some arbitrary standard of beauty. The poet explains how the medicines that she was taking were adversely affecting her natural beauty. He feels that she carries with herself the “ burden” of looking beautiful. The poet reflects on the concept of beautiful musingly. He is bewildered with those women who are obsessed with appearance and attractiveness and have it on their mind always. He draws a contrast between what his sister was going through with the beauty of nature during springtime.
Later on, when she finally gives up on the idea of trying to look beautiful or reach that arbitrary standard of beauty, she feels a lot more relieved and free. He feels that even the newfound freedom is beautiful too in its own right. In a gist, the poem implies that we often get too caught up reaching a certain standard of beauty and once that effort relinquishes or becomes a burden, it is wiser to let go of it.
(Poetry OutLoud)
Both the poems depict a very practical account of beauty perception today. While Shakespeare’s poem is a sonnet in which he claims his love for a dun mistress to be just as extraordinary as it could have been for any other goddess who is better than her, Tony’s poem is a reflection of women’s race to look beautiful and then how they finally find solace from it. While Shakespeare’s poem reflects on the traits of his mistress, Tony’s reflects on what his sister was going through. They are set against different backdrop but put forth the concept of beauty in a very realistic way.