Sonnet 127 - Poetry Explication.
The sonnet is entitled Number 127. It was given this title by Thomas Thorpe when it and the rest of Shakespeare’s sonnets were numbered and published by him. The speaker is unknown; he is explaining a situation rather than taking part in it, and informing us how others are affected by that situation. Neither is there a particular subject; the poem is speaking to the general readership as its audience. There is no definable occasion or setting.
The sonnet is written as an anti-Petrarchan statement against the accepted poetic conventions of the time. The central idea is also based around this concept, which comes in two parts i) that black can be beautiful and only convention says that it cannot, and ii) that due to modern methods of beautification (makeup etc.) everyone can be beautiful, and this belittles nature.
The sonnet is ironic in that beauty can be achieved by the power of one’s own hand, rather than bestowed upon by nature. The enhanced beauty mocks nature because it simulates and betters it. It also mocks the petrarchan conventions in the way it portrays beauty. Lines 5, 6, 7, and 8 illustrate how Shakespeare achieves this tone - together they assert that when makeup is applied, it undervalues or disparages true beauty, and that true beauty dulls in comparison. The sonnet is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, composing 3 quatrains which each put forth some aspect of the main idea, and ending with a couplet which gives a conclusion to the main idea. Shakespeare arranged the poem this way because it is the arrangement he used most in his work. The meter of the poem is iambic pentameter.
For me, the words “becoming of their woe” are particularly well chosen. They evoke the imagery of a face, its eyes big and brimming with tears. A whole caste of people born with the ‘misfortune’ of being dark-haired. There are some instances of assonance in the poem, but there is no pattern to their appearance - it occurs between lines, and irregularly. There are no examples of consonance. There are cases of alliteration in most lines of the poem - 1/5th of the words posses alliteration. This rhyme serves to accentuate the words - make them seem more forceful and alive. Sound affects sense in that the wrong choice of words - those which sound wrong, or negative to the purpose of the poem and the emotions it is intended to evoke, for example the word ‘pulchritude’ means ‘beauty’ but sounds highly negative and ugly - can change the reader’s perception of the poem, and how he interprets it.
The imagery contained in the poem is sad. It evokes visions of mournful people, doomed to ugliness and obscurity because of how they look, and how convention and others say they should look. The line “Fairing the foul with art’s false borrowed face” suggests a certain two-facedness about people. They are quick to accept a painted reality, but when confronted with true beauty in a black form, they deny its splendour. This provokes an image of a woman looking into a mirror with an altered reflection staring back at her. There are no examples of metaphor. There is one instance of simile; the speaker compares the eyes of his mistress to mourners in line ten. This simile enhances the sadness of the subject, and strengthens the images put forward by the words. Beauty is somewhat personified in this sonnet. Beauty is treated in such a way that it ‘lives in disgrace, and is usurped by ‘art’s false borrowed face’ and is shown in this way in order to contrast the truth of beauty with the lie of beauty. There are no examples of allegory, allusion, symbols, paradox, over or understatement, or irony.
The poem has only one level of meaning; the significance of the poem is laid out for all to see. It is meant to be obvious as a direct equivalent to a poem typical of the time, the difference being that it is anti-petrarchan, rather than petrarchan. The meaning is that black should be counted beautiful because fair beauty is false and polluted with makeup, therefore black beauty mourns because she knows that black is beautiful but others will not recognise this due to convention. I chose to memorise lines 11 and 12 because it states the purpose of the poem - those not born fair do not lack beauty, which falsely portrays creation with fake value. The lines also please me in their sound and choice of words.
The poem does not fit in with the literary conventions of the time (late 16th - early 17th century); such conventions included the praising of beauty in its idealistic form, extolling the beauty and wonder of the subject, the exhortation of virtues at the expense of oneself, and certain amounts of chivalry and bravery. The poem instead mocks the convention of ideal beauty, painting a very different picture of charm, and making the subject appear depressed and mournful.
I like this poem. It has a clear purpose - to defy the petrarchan convention and to ridicule the precedent of beauty. The wording is clear and is the best which could be chosen to convey the correct meaning and it is not cluttered with unnecessary words or phrases. The organisation (both of the elements of the work and the organisation of rhyme and meter) is effective and logical in the way it is presented. It is certainly original; going against the conventions of the time and proffering a contrary and fitting answer to that convention. The significance of the purpose served by the poem is great considering when it was written. In terms of the literary expectations of the time, the poem goes against the ‘rules’ and is a protest against the artistic narrow-mindedness which commanded the mainstream. It is a good poem, but falls somewhat short of great; while it gives me a sense of emotion felt by the subject, and of insight into the truth behind beauty and the shortcomings of convention, it does not provoke much further thought into the subject, or engage my imagination in any great way. In this it accomplishes part of that which is necessary to make it great, but does not totally finish the job in my eyes.