Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
by William Shakespeare · 1609
1My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
2Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
3If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
4If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
5I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
6But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
7And in some perfumes is there more delight
8Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
9I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
10That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
11I grant I never saw a goddess go;
12My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
13And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
14As any she belied with false compare.
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“Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-130
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Published
- 1609
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, Funny
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- William Shakespeare1564–1616
- Source record
- QuillOak curated editionSonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (1609) by william-shakespeare
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1609
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 51b37a115fdc383f…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.