This is the 130th sonnet in Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence of 154 sonnets, published in 1609. You were supposed to be able to recognize a goddess by the way she walked.
The word was not used then with our heavily negative sense, but more neutrally.ġ1 go: walk. Damask roses were a sweet-smelling variety popular at the time.Ĩ reeks: is exhaled. The mistress, however, has black and not blonde hair.ĥ damasked: mingled (red and white). Ornamental head-dresses of the period often contained gold wires, so that it was quite normal to compare lush blonde hair with the gold wires in the head-dress above. her eyes are not bright and shining.Ĥ wires: (gold) wires.
