A pair of sonnets by William Shakespeare and Jennifer Reeser for Valentine’s Day

• Sonnet 130
• My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; 
• Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; 
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; 
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 
• But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 
• And in some perfumes is there more delight 
• Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 
• I love to hear her speak, yet well I know 
• That music hath a far more pleasing sound; 
• I grant I never saw a goddess go; 
• My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. 
•    And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare 
•    As any she belied with false compare.

William Shakespeare (1864-1616) is considered the greatest English poet – and perhaps one of the greatest poets of any language – to put pen to paper. The general reading public usually demonstrates an increased interest in his work, especially his sonnets on love, around Valentine’s Day.

• Sonnet 4 from Sonnets from the Dark Lady
• “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”
• Milord makes rare parade of his emotions.
• Completing undertakings at the pew,
• No braggart sagas follow his devotions;
• His myths are masked, reported visions few.
• Inviting me to drink but not to dance,
• He sheds no tears departing from my bed.
• He has one sole, uninterrupted glance.
• I have for faith the sacrificed unsaid.
• Many a diva gets her burning word,
• Chocolate oblations brandied, blessed, hot-toddied.
• I have for heat the hidden and unheard,
• An incandescent, backwards disembodied,
• And would – for naught and nothing – make a trade
• For pageants staged within him, well-displayed.

Jennifer Reeser is a poet, critic, and a translator of French and Russian literature. Her sonnet in response to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 appeared in her 2012 volume Sonnets from the Dark Lady & Other Poems. Her most recent book is Indigenous: Poems (Able Muse Press, 2018).