Essay on Lust and Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and...

Lust and Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Campion’s There is a Garden in Her Face When a comparison is made between There is a Garden in Her Face by Thomas Campion and Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare, the difference between lustful adoration and true love becomes evident. Both poems involve descriptions of a beloved lady seen through the eyes of the speaker, but the speaker in Campions poem discusses the womans beautiful perfections, while the speaker in Shakespeares poem shows that it is the womans faults which make her beautiful. In There is a Garden in Her Face, the subject of the speakers affection is idolized beyond reality and is placed so high upon a pedestal that she is virtually unattainable. Campion†¦show more content†¦Shakespeare realizes the unnatural and exaggerated aspects of such love poems as There is a Garden in Her Face, and wittily writes Sonnet 130 as a look at real love instead of distorted worship. While Campion uses imagery of nature in comparison to the woman in his poem, Shakespeare states all of the differences between nature and the speakers mistress. His mistress has nothing in common with roses, which are so often used to describe Campions subject. She does not have white skin or red lips like the ideal woman of Renaissance poetry. Despite this womans lack of conventional beauty though, it is clear that the speaker loves her with more depth than the speaker in Campions poem. He is more interested in what is beneath the surface. He says he love[s] to hear her speak, even th ough her voice is not like music, because he most likely enjoys the content of her words rather than the actual sound (9-10). The lady of Sonnet 130 is not as far out of reach as the lady of There is a Garden in Her Face. The speaker calls her [m]y mistress, indicating that she belongs to him (1). The woman in Campions poem is referred to as nothing more than her, a far colder and impersonal term. There is no description of the mistress in Shakespeares sonnet as a heavenly creature. This woman, when she walks, treads on the ground(12). She is a regular woman, not as the lady in Campions poem appears to be. She has her faults such as her