Sonnet 127

Song Meaning

Shakespeare's Sonnet 127 opens with a stark contrast: blackness, once considered unattractive, has now become the very definition of beauty. This shift isn't organic; it's driven by artifice. The lyrics lament that people are now using "art's false borrow'd face" to enhance their looks, effectively "fairing the foul." This widespread fakery has devalued true beauty, leaving it "profan'd" and living "in disgrace." The central tension arises from this societal obsession with manufactured appearances. The narrator's mistress, with her "raven black" eyes, is presented as an exception to this trend. Her dark eyes are described as "mourners," seemingly weeping for the state of beauty itself. They appear to grieve for those who, despite not being naturally fair, now possess beauty through artificial means, thus "slandering creation with a false esteem." The most striking aspect is how the mistress's dark eyes, initially presented as potentially unfashionable by the poem's opening premise, become the very embodiment of a natural, albeit mournful, beauty. Her sorrowful gaze, far from being a flaw, is framed as fitting and appropriate given the surrounding superficiality. This turns the poem's initial assertion on its head, suggesting that true beauty might be found in a somber, natural state that acknowledges the world's falseness. Ultimately, the sonnet's power lies in its critique of societal standards and its subtle elevation of natural, even melancholic, features. The narrator finds profound beauty in his mistress's eyes precisely because they seem to understand and react to the surrounding artificiality. Her mournful expression, rather than detracting from her, becomes the ultimate mark of her authentic beauty, making "every tongue say beauty should look so."