Question

identify three features that make this poem a sonnet and discuss their effect on the poem. (poem added)

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Sonnets, by design are as follows:

1. iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line)
2. fourteen lines
3. rhyme scheme. This is a Shakespearean (or Elizabethan) sonnet based on the rhyme scheme which is ABABCDCDEFEFGG.

Everything before the couplet (lines that rhyme - GG) establishes a situation in the poem. The last two lines (for the Shakespearean sonnets) resolves whatever the situation is, or provides closure to the poem. In this case, his mistress isn't much to look at, yet he loves her nonetheless.