Question

Read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130."

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,-
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
10
What is the best paraphrase of line 12?
She has trouble walking on the ground.
O When she walks, she leaves footprints.
O Like everyone, she walks on the ground.
O She cannot be compared to other standards.

Answer 1

Line 12 of Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 130' means that the speaker's mistress is a mortal who walks on the ground like any other person, emphasizing her human qualities.

Step-by-step explanation:

The best paraphrase of line 12 from Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, 'My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground,' is 'Like everyone, she walks on the ground.' This line intends to convey that the speaker's mistress is a mortal, just like any other human, and does not possess the unearthly qualities or the idealized perfection that is often attributed to women in poetic comparisons. In the context of the sonnet, it serves to ground the description of the speaker's mistress in reality, countering the hyperbolic and unrealistic comparisons typical in love poetry of the time.