Sonnets: Petrarch and Shakespeare

Poetry is not a strong point of mine. I often find it challenging to find the meanings of the poems which makes it hard to understand.

Shakespeare's sonnet seems to have mixed, changing feelings about his mistress. In the beginning it seems as if he does not truly love her, pointing out all of her flaws and "ugliness".

"If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks"

But by the end of the sonnet, the reader can see that he does actually seem to love her, even though she might have these ugly traits or characteristics on the outside, she is lovely and beautiful on the inside.

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/That music hath a far more pleasing sound"

"And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,/As any she belied with false compare."

This shows the idea that it is about what is on the inside that matters more than what is on the outside. It seems like he does not like her by the way he describes her, but even though she has these negative, ugly qualities, he still loves her and does not let them prevent him from truly loving her.