Sonnet Analysis: Shakespeare II

This sonnet I am almost scared of analyzing, because it is one of my favorites and one I have had memorized for almost too long. But it deserves to be looked at, and so, without further ado, Shakespeare's Sonnet 130:

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 damask'd, 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.


Triumphs:
This is a classic inversion of the blazon, turning the already-standard tropes of love poetry around in order to (still) finish with a declaration of love. It's not quite "negging" in the modern sense, as the poet ends with an affirmation of his love's rareness; it is more of an attack on others' poetry disguised within a love poem. And at that, it is highly effective, a virtuoso example of taking a style and using it to mock itself. The comparisons are all there, just turned around, and the fact that the poet avoids too much repetition in how he introduces them shows a stylistic variability that pleases the ear. There is a good use of the octave-sestet division at "I love to hear her speak," which follows upon the strong negativity of the previous eight lines (and particularly the ending "reeks" of line 8) with a positive image, which is immediately turned to still support the dominant message through "yet well I know/That music hath a far more pleasing sound." The rest of the sestet is beautifully done as well, and, as is frequently the case with Shakespeare, the couplet is amazing. It is strongly separated from the rest of the poem, yet draws on the previous lines for its effect, summing their effect up for its own purpose. The language is also gorgeous: the consonance of "white" and "wires" in lines 3-4, the power of the broad vowel in "reeks" in line 8, the return of "my mistress" from line 1 into line 12, just in time for the concluding couplet.

Imperfections:
Tempted as I am to say "this is my favorite, it's a perfect poem," it isn't. "In some perfumes is there more delight" seems a bit forced; the "by heaven" in the penultimate line seems like a filler; the double "red" in line 2 and "wires" in line 4 seem somewhere between filler and forced. But each of these can also be justified, which is what makes it hard to talk of imperfections here.