Which statement best explains the two possible interpretations of the sonnet? The three quatrains satirize common poetic comparisons of one’s beloved to beautiful things, suggesting that the speaker’s feelings are not strong. However, the sudden reversal in tone in the final couplet surprises and moves through its sincerity and depth of feeling, suggesting strong emotions.
The speaker ridicules his mistress through his negative comparisons of her to idealized objects in the first 12 lines, which implies that he has lost interest in her. In the final couplet, though, he humorously reverses his tone and exaggerates her charms, from which readers can infer that he is being playful rather than hurtful.
Some readers believe that the speaker uses satire to ridicule his mistress. Others find that his tone remains affectionate even while he speaks of her hair being “black wires,” her breath reeking, or her feet mundanely treading the ground.
The humorous tone in the first two quatrains show that the speaker does not take love seriously. However, in the third quatrain, he speaks of loving his mistress’s voice and that she moves as he imagines a goddess would; this shows that he is serious about love after all.