My Mistress' Eyes

"If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." - William Shakespeare

I was a little caught off guard when I first read this poem.  The title made me think it was going to be some kind of sonnet about the love the speaker has for his mistress. Instead, the poem points out all the things he finds wrong with his mistress.  For example, her lips are not red, her cheeks do not remind him of roses, and some perfumes smell better than her breath.  Then, the last two lines mark a shift in tone when he says: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare."  Here, the speaker is saying that his mistress is as wonderful as any other woman compared.  The tone throughout most of the poem, though, is established through the use of negative diction.  For example, the speaker says in the quote above that black wires grow on her head as hair.  This negative diction establishes the tone set on the negative aspects of the mistress.