"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare."
We've all heard the traditional love poems or sayings that compare certain aspects of a woman to ridiculously exaggerated qualities or objects. In fact, these phrases begin to become so cliched, that we rarely stop to critically inspect their validity. A lover's voice is often compared to music, her eyes to the sun, and her cheeks to roses. I, too, took this phrases for granted until reading them reversed in "My mistress' eyes" by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is honest and truthful. His lover's voice is nothing like music, it's simply a voice of someone he loves. Her eyes are in fact not like the sun at all, but they are merely the eyes of someone he loves. And finally, her cheeks to not resemble roses at all, they are merely the cheeks of someone he loves.
Truthful and simple as the lines before line thirteen maybe, they come across with quite an insulting tone. His lover might not appreciate the bluntness that leaves her seemingly undervalued. The last two lines of the poem (13 and 14 quoted above) manage to turn the entire tone around. Now the speaker is humble, honest, realistic, loving, and perceptive. He sees his lover for exactly who she is and loves her anyway, a sentiment far more romantic than all the cliches in the world.
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