Courtly love can be defined as the fashion in which woman was set up to be doted upon

their beauty. This poem embellishes women’s physical characteristics and compares them
to what humans in general find attractive. Shakespeare totally contradicts that idea in his
poem. The subject of his poem, the mistress, is void of these characteristics that are
described in courtly love .Whilst courtly love looks at mannerisms and physical attributes of
a woman. Courtly love describes women as ‘divine’ or perfect. Shakespeare's poem delivers
a message of real love that recognises faults in her persona. In spite of these faults he still
feels a strong devotion to his mistress. Courtly love embraces a woman’s physical attributes
and properties and is void off what she is as an actual person. However Shakespeare
compares his mistress to various inanimate objects by describing her ‘breasts that are dun,
hair like black wires, and breath that reeks’, these comparisons are negative. Though these
negative comparisons help the reader to see Shakespeare is a true testament of true love
with her inner beauty. Courtly love offers a Blazon. In literature blazon accounts for the
physical characteristics of a female. Looking at an exam of a poem based on courtly love,
Laura. The speaker of the poem describes the woman he is courting to be almost like a
divine angel. The speaker basically places the woman on a pedestal by worshiping and
parsing her. In reality we know that know humans are not divine and the subject of ‘Laura’ is
but a normal woman. The comparisons made in this poem are completely unrealistic.
‘Laura’ can be described as a blazon. Shakespeare completely does the opposite in his
poem. Shakespeare compares his mistress to many things negatively. Though Shakespeare
is not calling his mistress ugly, he is making an example of the blazon. He is making a
parody. Rather than describing his mistress as pretty physically but rather pointing out all
her flaws. Despite these flaws he loves her. This is seen as contreblazon. Despite coral being
an attractive colour on woman's lips he makes a comparison saying her lips aren’t red
enough, though this is a realistic comparison readers might expect a poet to use a blazon in
calling her lips as red as coral. Fair skin was seen as beautiful in European culture, though
Shakespeare calls his mistress’s breasts as dark ‘dun’, this allows the reader to ponder on
questioning if any woman would be as pale as snow. Shakespeare describes his subject as
not having breath that smells like perfume that is delightful, but he isn’t saying that her
breathe ‘reeks’ either, yes her breathe does smell, but no women has breathe that doesn’t
smell. What he is trying to point out is that no woman has breathe that smells like perfume
but rather emphasises on normalcy of women. He describes he physical attributes as well
as her voice in this way too, using contreblazon. He uses these comparisons to showcase
the reality of a woman, but despite this woman not being perfect and divine she is normal
and real. He is describing his mistress realistically. ‘Laura’ describes the mannerisms of the
subject as divine and perfect whilst Shakespeare emphasises the mundane actions of his
subject by highlighting actions and mannerisms that aren’t seen as ‘lady-like’ or ‘perfect’ but
rather praises the faults and mundane actions of his muse. 'And yet, by heaven, I think
my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.' This line describes the
rarity of his love compared to any women deceived about their unrealistic
appearances. This affirms that Shakespeare indeed loves his mistress, despite
her not living up to theses unrealistic appearances, where he rather praises her
real beauty and how she does not conform to the false convention of beauty in a
blazon which is something to be celebrated by this poem.