Blog Post #3

Robert Penn Warren in “True Love” and William Shakespeare in “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” portray their loves and their relationships in very different ways. “True Love” is written from the perspective of a young boy and takes on naïve mindset. The speaker in “True Love” highlights the moment the girl “named [his] name” admitting that he “thought [he] would wake up dead.” Not to mention, this love-stricken attitude is based around the outward beauty he sees in the girl. He’s captivated by this girl whose beauty “stops [his] heart,” “thickens [his] blood,” and “stops [his] breath” even though he’s never spoken to her. This poem is about innocent, impulsive, boyish, and unsubstantial love.

On the other hand, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare portrays the subject of love as quite a wretched lady. This is humorous because the speaker repeatedly brings up beautiful subjects with which to compare to the mistress only to let the comparisons fall flat. For instance, the speaker mentions roses both red and white only to say “but no such roses see I in her cheeks.” This love poem is refreshing because though the speaker pokes fun at the mistress’ appearances and characteristics, the speaker states “I love to hear her speak” and “by heaven, I think my love as rare / as any she belied with false compare.”

Both poems are light hearted and exaggerated but in different directions. The poem by Warren exaggerates the effect beauty can have on a young boy. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s poem exaggerates the unattractiveness of the mistress in order to emphasize the fact that there is true love nonetheless. Both poems are pretty exaggerated, but I’d have to say my views come closer to that of the speaker’s in Shakespeare’s poem. After all, we’re taught that it’s what’s on the inside that counts.