Compare and contrast Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130.

In Sonnet 18, the speaker describes how the person he
addresses is more sweet, temperate and fair than the beauty he sees in nature. He even
notes how the sun is sometimes dim and how nature’s beauty is
sporadic.

And
often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from
fair sometime declines,

The
speaker concludes that the beauty of the person he’s addressing is not so fleeting
because it will live as long as there are people to read this sonnet. His beloved’s
beauty last longer than nature because it is immortalized in verse. This lifts her to a
goddess-like status.

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So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,

So long lives this and gives life to
thee.

In Sonnet 130, the
speaker takes an oppositional or ironic approach. He notes how his beloved does not
compare to the beauty he sees in nature. Music is more pleasing than her voice. Coral is
more red than her lips. The speaker is chastising other poets who describe the one they
love with exaggerations that are so over the top, they are “false
comparisons.”

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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.

The two sonnets are
similar in that they compare a loved one’s beauty to the beauty of nature. Sonnet 18 is
effusive and traditional. Her beauty is more impressive than nature and is immortal
through this verse. Sonnet 130 is ironic, satiric and literally more down to earth.
While many poets have described loved ones with goddess-like qualities, the speaker in
sonnet 130 is much more honest and practical. In fact, you could say that the speaker in
sonnet 130 is challenging speakers in other poems, like the one in sonnet 18. It’s like
he’s saying his loved one is just as rare and beautiful: he doesn’t need to make
exaggerated comparisons to prove it. Shakespeare shows his versatility and/or the
willingness to mock others and himself.