Up in here celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday with a wee essay about my favourite woman depicted in Shakespeare. Read the entire thing over at Books That Shook Us [link: https://booksthatshookus.com/2017/04/23/shakespeare2017/ ]
My Mistress, Sonnet 130
It’s with a poet’s heart I claim as my favourite woman in all of Shakespeare the subject of Sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” In school we studied several of Shakespeare’s plays before an inspired and ambitious teacher drove us determinedly through the sonnets. After the previous parade of Ophelias, Juliets, and Titanias, I thrilled at Shakespeare’s earthy frankness in celebrating not only that a woman could be portrayed as human, but that as such she was more compelling than any idealization, caricature, or fancy.
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips’ red. . .
Telling a complete story in exactly 50 words is a challenge, but too much fun to resist. Somehow my crime dribble “Killer Details” turned out more slapstick than my usual. Suppose I should call it a win when my characters are more likely to end up in jail than six feet under.
Zandra Renwick 