A STUDY ON

Sonnet 132
Made by- Ananya SM, Arnav,Gowri
Dutta,Mona Manohar and V Sri Lalitha
About T h e P o e t
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet,
playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-
Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23
April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also
believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan

and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called
the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period).
Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring
legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s
poems also remain popular to this day.
 Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his
work; his plays have spawned countless
adaptations across multiple genres and cultures.
His plays have had an enduring presence on stage
and film. His writings have been compiled in
various iterations of The Complete Works of
William Shakespeare, which include all of his
plays, sonnets, and other poems. William
Shakespeare continues to be one of the most
important literary figures of the English language.
 About The Poem
Throughout ‘Sonnet 132,’ the poet explores themes
of beauty and relationships. His relationship is
controlled by the differences between how he
wants to be treated, how he is treated, and his
admiration for the Dark Lady’s beauty. He loves her
so much that he’s willing to put up with the less
than ideal way she treats him. He uses nature to
describe her actions and treatment of him in the
second half of the poem.
 Structure and Form
◦that‘Sonnet 132’ by William Shakespeare is a traditional sonnet
follows the pattern Shakespeare popularized. It contains
fourteen lines that are divided into two quatrains, or sets of
four lines, and one sestet, or set of six lines. They rhyme
ABABCDCDEFEFGG as the vast majority of Shakespeare’s
sonnets do.
◦◦ In iambic pentameter, each line contains five sets of two
beats, known as metrical feet. The first is unstressed, and the
second is stressed. It sounds something like da-DUM, da-DUM.
The poem can also be divided into three sets of four lines and a
final two-line couplet.
 Literary Devices

◦‘Sonnet
Shakespeare makes use of several poetic techniques in
132’. These include but are not limited to examples of:
◦◦Alliteration: the repetition of words with the same consonant
sound. For example, “music” and “motion” in lines one and two
and “sweet” and “sway’st” in line three.
◦natural
Enjambment: occurs when the poet cuts off a line before its
stopping point—for example, the transition between
lines.
◦comparison
Metaphor: there is a great example of a metaphor or a
between two unlike things, without using “like” or
“as” in lines three and four. Here, the speaker compares his lover’s
eyes to mourners who do him wrong but then love him.
◦ Personification: the attribution of human traits to non-human
objects, animals, etc. In this case, the poet personifies the Dark
Lady’s eyes. They are mournful and disdainful, looking down on
him in a way that bothers him but that he still finds beautiful.
Fir s t Q u a t r a i n : T h e
Eyes o f D i s d a i n
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.

quatrain of sonnet 132 asserts that he loves
The speaker in the first
his lady’s eyes even as they look at him “with disdain.” She wrongs
him, and he suffers, but he then dramatizes his suffering by focusing
on her eyes, which he claims “put on black and [become] loving
mourners.”
Her eyes seem to mourn for his torment, yet they continue to gaze at
him, or at his pain, with “pretty ruth.”
 Second Q u a t r a i n :
G l o r i f y i n g t h e F a c e
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even,
Doth half that glory to the sober west,

that sunrise and sunset do not beautify the
The speaker then asserts
land so well as her “two mourning eyes” glorify her face. The speaker

landscape before sunrise to “grey cheeks,”
has likened the darkened
which implies those dark cheeks of his mistress. The sun that is
“usher[ing] in” evening is a “full star,” but it offers less than “half the
glory” that the lady’s eyes give to her face.The second quatrain is only
part of the complete thought that continues in the third quatrain.
 Third Qua t r a i n : T h e
D r a m a o f M o u r n i n g
As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
O! let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.

The speaker labels his lady’s eyes, “those two mourning eyes” dramatizing
them with a pun on “mourning,” and the pun implies the wish that the

speaker projects: he wishes this beautiful creature had the grace of

“morning,” but instead she constantly delivers the characterization of

“mourning.”
The woman's eyes mourn for him not out of love but out of the pity she feels
for him after she has caused his misery. His humiliation is a cross he has to
bear in having a relationship with this woman.

The C o u p l e t : L o o k i n g
Past Pain
Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

In the couplet, the speaker again decides to accept the situation and even

support the woman for her beauty.

He will continue to look past the pain she causes him as long as he can
enjoy her beauty.

 Summary
Sonnet 132 represents an intensification of the poet's
feelings for the Dark Lady, ironically paralleling his former
relationship with the youth in that the poet recognizes
that she does not love him. Built around an image of the
woman's eyes, the sonnet is most notable for an extended
pun on the words "morning" and "mourning."
The first quatrain leaves little doubt that the woman has
no amorous feelings for the poet. Addressing the woman,
the poet acknowledges that her heart "torments" him
"with disdain." How does he know this? He sees her
disaffection in her eyes, which "Have put on black and
loving mourners be, / Looking with pretty ruth upon [his]
pain."
 The word "mourners" in line 3 is punned in the first line of
the second quatrain, in which the poet describes the
woman's eyes in comparison to how the "morning sun of
heaven / Better becomes the grey cheeks of the
east."However, note how unflattering are the poet's
comparisons between the woman's eyes and nature: Nature
is not brightly shining; rather it is "grey" and "sober." The
third quatrain completes the poet's thoughts in the second
quatrain. The comparisons he makes are to the woman's
"two mourning eyes" because of the pity she feels for him.
Ironically, the woman's dark, "mourning" eyes make her
even more attractive to the poet, who, in the concluding
couplet, again swears allegiance to the woman's beauty and
calls "foul" all other women whose looks are not as black as
the Dark Lady's.

Thank You
for listening!