Comment 6 of 7, added on May 10th, 2006 at 6:05 PM.

I saw an interesting approach to this poem once at a Shakespeare Acting workshop. It was acted as if the poet, or speaker, was attempting to proclaim his love using the traditional structure of love poetry with traditional images (roses, snow, perfume, beautiful eyes, red lips, goddess comparisons) but was failing. So what you get is someone who begins a line with the very passsionate intention of talking about the beauty of his beloved, and ends the line by conceding her lack of external beauty.

My mistress' eyes are...[realizes]...nothing like the sun. [breath, starts again determined to be poetical about his lover] coral is far more red...[realizes]...than her lips' red. etc.

There is a rising and falling action, an attack and a defeat, in almost every line. In speaking the poem this way, "I love to hear her speak" becomes a breakthrough. It is the first time he has spoken about a good quality of hers, but it is quickly abandoned once he considers music. By the end of the first 12 lines, the speaker is totally defeated by reason only to rise again in the last couplet with total abandon to claim his mistress with every ounce of his being. Pretty powerful...and funny.

There is another funn approach I saw as well. I watched someone get off on all the mistress' "bad" qualities. The fact that his mistress' breath is bad and she has black wires growing out of her head have the potential to be spoken in the same way as if they were amazing qualities. Very funny.

John from United States