#lucymorgan

Content Notice (CN): Hxtory revisionism, womxn of color (WOC) erasure, and eurocentric beauty standards. End CN. Image Description (ID): Tena Gordon (@reformistrevolutionaryrose), a Blindian with short Afro hair, is smiling against a striped towel and bright pink wall. End ID. Sonnet 130 Analysis, Part 2, by Tena Gordon: ...the mistress is not the Snow White type with pale skin, rosy cheeks, and silky hair. However, I interpret the mistress’ traits to be *racially* the opposite of mistresses in mainstream love poems--not her appearance being the opposite of beautiful. Even since 1609, when “Sonnet 130” was published according to The Seagull Reader: Poems, we are conditioned to defer to eurocentric beauty standards. Especially if this poem was written by and/or about #LucyMorgan (Morris 2012) or #AemiliaBassanoLanier (Hudson 2009), the sonnet may be a form of social commentary rejecting the whiteness of love poems. I read the sonnet in a more neutral to positive tone. Considering more is written about how the mistress does not look than how she actually looks, perhaps the speaker was anticipating backlash against the mistress’ appearance. Works Cited Hudson, John. “Amelia Bassano Lanier: A New Paradigm.” The Oxfordian, vol. 10, 2009, https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/Oxfordian2009_Hudson_Bassano.pdf. Morris, Sylvia. “Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets: Fact or Fiction?” The Shakespeare Blog, 3 Sept. 2012, theshakespeareblog.com/2012/09/shakespeares-dark-lady-of-the-sonnets-fact-or-fiction/. Shakespeare,  William. “Sonnet 130.” The Seagull Reader: Poems, edited by Joseph Kelly, 3rd ed., Norton, 2015, pp. 280. Wnd of Part 2, the Final Part.

Content Notice (CN): Hxtory revisonism, womxn of color (WOC) erasure, sex. End CN. Image Description (ID): Tena Gordon (@reformistrevolutionaryrose), a Blindian with short Afro hair, is smiling against a striped towel and bright pink wall. End ID. Sonnet 130 Analysis, Part 1, by Tena: “Sonnet 130,”  dubiously credited to #WilliamShakespeare in The Seagull Reader: Poems, abides by the traditional structural elements of English sonnets; however, “Sonnet 130” diverges from tradition by portraying the love interest more realistically. The following is the likely rhetorical situation: the speaker appreciates their lover for who they are, the audience is the speaker’s friend, the setting is a private space like the speaker or friend’s home or an intimate public space like a bar, and the occasion is the speaker’s friend inquiring about the speaker’s love interest... As opposed to extravagant metaphors, the author employs literal descriptions. For example, their mistress walks like the average able-bodied person, perhaps clumsily (12). Moreover, the mistress is portrayed as having greyish brown “dun” breasts (3) and coarse “wiry” black hair (4), traits commonly associated with people of African descent. Also, natural blush or makeup blush on darker skin people is often not as visible or bright as on lighter skin people; hence, “But no such roses see I in her cheeks” (6). Therefore, “the mistress” is likely based on #AemiliaBassanoLanier, an African Jewish womxn who is the author of works credited to Shakespeare (Hudson 2009), or #LucyMorgan, a black entrepreneur womxn in the British sex industry (Morris 2012). In the concluding couplet of the poem, the speaker swears to God or expresses joy in loving their mistress: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare” (13-14). The speaker affirms that they love their mistress just as much as the traditional poets who characterize their love interests by exaggerated analogies. The speaker juxtaposes descriptions of their love interest with descriptions of love interests in traditional love poems, indicating that “Sonnet 130” is Horatian satire. End of #Sonnet130 Analysis, Part 1.