Who started a poem with the line 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'?

• A. Shakespeare
• B. Keats
• C. Milton
• D. Wordsworth

Answer: (A)

That line opens a Shakespearean sonnet that undercuts exaggerated beauty images by starting with a blunt, real-world image of the beloved. It’s William Shakespeare who began the poem with “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” signaling right away that the speaker won’t indulge the usual Petrarchan ideals of goddess-like beauty. Instead, the poem goes on to argue that love is sincere even if the beloved doesn’t fit those grand, flawless comparisons, a hallmark of Sonnet 130 from Shakespeare’s collection of youthful love sonnets.

Knowing the era helps: Shakespeare’s sonnets come from the Elizabethan/Jacobean period and often play with form and tone in ways that later Romantic poets did not. Keats, Milton, and Wordsworth belong to later periods with different stylistic focuses, so they wouldn’t be expected to start a poem with this line.