In this particular poem, the only true turn is in the final couplet: "And yet, by heav'n, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compare."ĭiscussion: Shakespeare is making a mockery of the overly florid "courtly" sonnets popular in the 1590s. The "turn", or volta, in a Shakespearean sonnet typically occurs in line 9, with a slightly further turning in the closing couplet. You probably know the drill by now, but it's a sonnet written in iambic pentameter (five iambs per line, taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM), and using the following rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG. My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:Īnd yet, by heav'n, I think my love as rareįorm: Shakespearean sonnet, of course. That music hath a far more pleasing sound I love to hear her speak, yet well I know Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,Īnd in some perfumes is there more delight If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun Ĭoral is far more red than her lips' red
And even his recitation of the phone book would probably require a change of knickers.) (I could listen to that man read the phone book. KellyrfinemanA lovely sonnet, followed by a video offering two aural interpretations of the poem: one by Daniel Radcliffe, the other by the incomparable Alan Rickman.