Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130—Anti-Petrarchan?

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 deals with the issue of ideal and unconditional love just like Petrarch’s “She Used to Let Her Golden Hair Fly Free.” However, the poems go about explaining this love in remarkably different styles. Petrarch’s sonnet is a typical sonnet of the time of Renaissance, which uses lofty comparisons to praise a beloved idol. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s sonnet is very informal and seemingly disrespectful to the poet's love, as if mocking the old, tedious traditio...