My mistress' eyes

"And yet..."


I found this poem humorous and I think that was it's intent? It seemed to be a satire of the typical love poems. The poem begins with a simile "my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" basically saying that his mistress' eyes are dull not bright like the sun. The fact that this poem was written by Shakespeare is funny to me since he wrote Romeo and Juliet which is a complete love story. The speaker's tone for most of the poem seems to be critical. He is pretty much bashing his girl saying that she has nice traits but not as good as they could be. The speaker "loves to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound" saying that his mistress doesn't quite measure up to his standards. The tone then shifts with the phrase "And yet". The speaker states that "my love as rare as any she belied with false compare". I'm not sure exactly what this means. I think he is saying that although he sees all these flaws in his mistress, his love for her is still genuine. But then again, I feel like this entire poem is making fun of poems that declare their love for their significant other with similes and metaphors to things of beauty.