AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Question about this poem?
Have a question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
Have a specific question about this poem?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Ask us
Ask us
Ask a question
Ask a question
Ask a question
The Full Text of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
1A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
2Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
3A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
4With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
5An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
6Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
7A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
8Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
9And for a woman wert thou first created,
10Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
11And by addition me of thee defeated
12By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
13 But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
14 Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Introduction
-
“Sonnet 20” is a poem by the Renaissance playwright and poet William Shakespeare. The poem belongs to a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets addressing an unidentified “fair youth”—a young man for whom the speaker of the poems expresses love and attraction. In this particular sonnet, the speaker praises the fair youth for his beauty, which encompasses both feminine and masculine qualities. While acknowledging that this fair youth may continue to have physical relationships with women, the speaker affirms the depth of the love between the youth and himself. “Sonnet 20” was included in a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets first published in 1609.
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Summary
-
You have a feminine face, like a graceful painting made by nature herself—you, who are the lord and lady of my desire and love. You have a tender, caring heart, like that of a woman. But your heart is steadfast and true, unlike cheating women’s hearts. Your eyes are brighter than women’s eyes, and less wandering in their attention; everything you look at seems brighter, and almost golden. You look like a man, and you command everyone's attention, regardless of what they look like: men can’t help but look at you, and the sight of you fills women with awe. In fact, you were originally intended to be a woman, until nature, while making you, became overly affectionate. She added one addition to you and in doing so, defeated me—by adding something that, for the purposes of my love for you, is inconsequential. But since nature created your body to be sexually appealing to women, they can enjoy your body, as long as I have your love.
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Themes
-
Love and Desire
“Sonnet 20” is part of a sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets addressed to someone often referred as the “fair youth”—a young man with whom the speaker has an intimate relationship. In this particular sonnet, the speaker expresses love for and attraction to this young man, noting that despite nature having apparently designed the youth “for women’s pleasure”—that is, made him a man—the speaker is the one who really has his heart.
Plenty of readers take the poem to be about homosexuality, though it's ambiguous whether the speaker has or wants a physical relationship with this young man. Either way, the poem can be read more broadly as pointing out the different kinds of love and connection that exist. The poem makes a clear distinction between the deeply romantic connection the speaker has with this young man, and the more surface-level relationships that this young man has with women. In this way, the poem suggests that love, intimacy, and even eroticism go well beyond physical desire.
The speaker expresses clear romantic attraction to the young man by complimenting his good looks and general disposition. The speaker comments on his beautiful face and eyes and also calls him the “master-mistress of [his] passion,” the word “passion” emphasizing the powerful feelings the youth evokes in the speaker. The speaker also takes care to note that he is not just physically attracted to this young man, going on to praise his “gentle heart.”
The young man may be attractive to both men and women, but the speaker insists that the relationships the fair youth has with women are solely physical—and thus inconsequential when compared to the relationship the speaker has with this person. When the speaker says that “nature […] pricked thee out for women’s pleasure,” he's punning on the idea that the fair youth’s body makes him sexually appealing to women. At the same time, the speaker emphasizes that these women are only involved with the fair youth’s body (and, arguably, only with a certain aspect of his body!). The speaker even refers to these sexual relationships with women as “thy love’s use,” suggesting that in a sense these women are simply “using” this man’s body. They might “treasure” his physical attractiveness, but they don’t truly love him like the speaker does.
Importantly, too, the speaker only dedicates about a line and a half to the relationships that the young man has with women—implying that they're not worthy of that much time or attention. The speaker thus insists that while women might be involved with this young man physically, it's the relationship between the speaker and the fair youth that truly matters. At the end of the poem, the speaker asserts, “Mine be thy love,” expressing his confidence that he is the one who has the fair youth’s actual love. Ultimately, then, the poem implies that there is a deeper kind of romantic connection that goes beyond mere physical desire.
Do note that none of this necessarily means that the speaker isn’t also physically intimate with the young man; the speaker’s suggestion that the fair youth only has sexual relationships with women could reflect the restrictive social norms at the time Shakespeare was writing—that is, this might just be a way for the speaker to express his affection for the young man without getting either of them into trouble. What's more, the poem can also be read as subtly implying that the speaker does have a physical relationship with the fair youth—a possibility that is unpacked more in the Line-by-Line section of this guide.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
Gender and Beauty
A big part of what makes the young man so attractive to the speaker of “Sonnet 20” is the fact that he comes across as both conventionally masculine and feminine. He has the delicate beauty and gentle manner of women, but he has none of women’s shiftiness or fickleness (to be clear, the speaker has a pretty narrow and misogynistic take on womanhood!). By depicting this beautiful person who cannot exclusively be defined as male or female, and who is attractive to both men and women, the poem celebrates a more fluid conception of beauty. It may even suggest that ideal beauty contains a mixture of conventionally male and female characteristics.
Throughout the poem, the speaker insists that this young man has both male and female qualities, and that all of these qualities in combination are precisely what make him so beautiful. For example, the speaker praises the fact that the young man has a “woman’s face”—the implication being that this young man has features traditionally associated with femininity, such as delicacy and softness.
At the same time, the speaker depicts the fair youth as a “man in hue,” implying that his appearance has masculine attributes as well. The speaker further suggests that the young man has a steady, commanding presence—something conventionally associated with masculinity.
The speaker further implies that this young man is particularly attractive because he doesn’t completely adhere to the stereotypical norms of any one gender. For instance, the speaker praises the young man for having a “woman’s gentle heart”; though he is traditionally masculine by being commanding and strong, he is also more attractive for not being stereotypically masculine in all ways.
And while the speaker praises the young man for having a “woman’s face,” he also suggests that this young man is superior because he does not meet other stereotypical qualities of women—such as being “false” or “changing.” In other words, the young man has feminine qualities but is all the more attractive for not meeting this norm or stereotype completely. Instead, the poem suggests this young man is so beautiful because he encompasses the most beautiful and attractive traits traditionally associated with men and women.
Throughout the poem, then, the speaker presents a vision of beauty that doesn't completely adhere to any one gender in a strict or rigid way. Rather, the poem suggests that beauty—and even perhaps, ideal beauty—is far more fluid and flexible than people may assume.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
-
Lines 1-2
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;The speaker describes someone who has a “woman’s face,” implying that this person has features that are traditionally feminine, delicate, and soft. The speaker then compares this person’s face to a painting made by “nature’s own hand,” suggesting that this person’s face is not only graceful and feminine, but also as beautiful as a work of art. By personifying nature as someone with a “hand” who “painted” this face, the speaker further suggests that nature took the time to make this person particularly beautiful.
In the second line of the poem, it becomes clear that the speaker is addressing this beautiful person directly. “Hast thou,” the speaker says, a phrase that translates in modern English as “you have.” After the enjambment at the end of the first line, then, the speaker reveals that he is speaking directly—and even, perhaps, privately—to the person with these beautiful, feminine features.
The speaker then goes on to identify this “you” as “the master-mistress of my passion.” The phrase “master-mistress” suggests that this other person is both “master”—a male term for a lord or ruler—and “mistress”—a word that can refer to a female “master” but also to a lover or wife. The hyphen, combining the two words, implies that the object of the speaker's affections is both masculine and feminine. At the same time, the phrase suggests that this person has a kind of power over the speaker (as a “master”) and is the speaker’s lover or intimate partner (his “mistress”).
The word “passion” is important here, simultaneously implying strong feeling, love, and desire. This beautiful person, then, who is both masculine and feminine, is a kind of “lord” or “lady” of the speaker’s own “passion”—the singular focus of the speaker’s love and attraction.
Sound links all three words together. First, alliterative /m/ sounds connect “master” and “mistress,” emphasizing that this person encompasses qualities that are both masculine and feminine. Consonant /st/ sounds further link these words together. Then, the /ah/ sound of “master” repeats in “passion,” reinforcing the connection between the two words and the power that this person has over the speaker’s desire and love.
-
Lines 3-4
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
Unlock all 275 words of this analysis of Lines 3-4 of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Lines 5-6
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; -
Lines 7-8
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth. -
Lines 9-10
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, -
Lines 11-12
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. -
Lines 13-14
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Anaphora
Unlock all 196 words of this analysis of Anaphora in “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+ -
Juxtaposition
-
Metaphor
-
Personification
-
Caesura
-
Enjambment
-
End-Stopped Line
-
Alliteration
-
Consonance
-
Assonance
-
Repetition
-
Pun
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Master-mistress
- Acquainted
- False
- Fashion
- Rolling
- Gilding
- Gazeth
- Hue
- Steal
- Amazeth
- Wert
- A-doting
- Purpose
- Pricked
Master-mistress-
The speaker refers to the fair youth as the "master-mistress of [his] passion." This hyphenated word brings together two words—"master" and "mistress." The word "master" can mean a lord or ruler; it can also mean a virtuoso, as in the sense of a "master" artist. The word "mistress," meanwhile, can refer to a female lord (or lady) or ruler, but it also refers to someone's wife or lover. This hyphenated word, then, suggests that the fair youth is "master" of the speaker's love and desire—he has ultimate power over it—and is also the speaker's "mistress," his lover or intimate partner.
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
-
Form
“Sonnet 20” is, as the title indicates, a sonnet, a traditional 14-line poetic form that dates back to 13th-century Italian love poetry. The Italian poet Petrarch popularized the sonnet in the 14th century, and, during the western European Renaissance, Shakespeare and other English poets revitalized it, creating a distinct kind of sonnet now known as the Shakespearean sonnet.
In general, the first part of any sonnet introduces a problem or difficulty. Then, after a “turn,” or volta, the second part of the sonnet replies to this difficulty. In Shakespearean sonnets, this pivotal “turn” doesn't happen until the closing couplet. This ending, then, can reply to the rest of the poem in a surprising way, having the effect of an epiphany or unexpected resolution.
“Sonnet 20” follows the form of the Shakespearean sonnet, for the most part. The poem begins with three quatrains, or four-line stanzas, and ends with a final rhyming couplet that offers a clever response to the issue at hand; in lines 13 and 14, as the speaker suggests that the fair youth (who has been made “for women’s pleasure”) can continue to have sexual relationships with women, since the speaker knows that he has the fair youth’s love.
In a certain sense, though, the poem also follows the traditional structure of Petrarchan sonnets, given that there's a subtler “turn” popping up after the opening eight lines. The first two quatrains simply praise the young man's beauty; there isn't really any issue yet. But in line 9, the speaker shifts from praising the fair youth to talking about the fact that nature made the fair youth a man (and, thus, incapable of being with the speaker physically). In a way, then, the speaker doesn't actually introduce the poem's dilemma until more than half-way through!
Sonnets usually begin by proposing a difficulty, which the speaker then replies to—in other words, the reply to the problem takes up the shorter part of the sonnet. Yet in “Sonnet 20,” the “problem” (the fact that the fair youth has been made male bodied) comes second. This means that the speaker’s praise of the fair youth, and his expression of love and desire for the fair youth, is afforded the most space—and implicitly, the most importance—within the poem. The poem’s ever-so-slight revision of the traditional structure, then, suggests that this love is profoundly meaningful and lasting.
-
Meter
As with most sonnets, "Sonnet 20" uses iambic pentameter. In this meter, each line has five iambs—metrical feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable, da-DUM. This meter creates a pattern of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, with each line of the poem ending on a stress: da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM.
“Sonnet 20” sticks to this meter pretty closely throughout, but it also departs from it in a crucial way. While all the lines follow iambic pentameter (with minor variations here and there), each line contains one additional syllable—an eleventh syllable—that is unstressed. For instance, the opening lines of the poem read:
A wom- | an’s face | with na- | ture’s own | hand painted
Hast thou, | the mas- | ter-mis- | tress of | my passion;This subtle divergence from the meter is important to the poem’s meaning. Within discussions of meter, stressed syllables are considered “masculine,” while unstressed syllables are considered “feminine.” In sonnets that follow a meter of iambic pentameter, then, each line ends with a “masculine” syllable, and the poem as a whole would end with a “masculine” stress.
Yet in Sonnet 20, each line ends with a feminine syllable, an unstressed “addition” that changes the music of the poem and also enacts with what the speaker describes as he praises the fair youth for having both masculine and feminine qualities—for being, in a certain sense, neither entirely male nor female. The poem then embodies this vision of beauty in its form: while most of the poem’s metrical feet end with masculine syllables, the lines end with feminine syllables, creating a balance between the two.
These “additions” to the line endings can also be read as a subtle reply to the speaker’s idea of the “addition” that nature made to the fair youth’s body—which changed him from the woman he was originally “created” to be into the male bodied person he is.
-
Rhyme Scheme
“Sonnet 20” follows the traditional rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet. In this rhyme scheme, the poem is organized into three quatrains (or clusters of four lines) and a closing couplet. Altogether, the pattern looks like this:
ABABCDCDEFEFGG
The poem follows this traditional rhyme scheme but also introduces some very slight variations to it. First, the rhyme words “a-doting” and “nothing” in lines 10 and 12 are arguably closer to a slant rhyme. This slant rhyme stands out in the poem, and suggests the possible disjunction of the “addition” nature made to this person who was “first created” to be a woman. At the same time, this slant rhyme also calls attention to the word “nothing,” suggesting that for the speaker in his attraction for this person, the fact that the fair youth has this “addition” is actually “no thing,” or inconsequential as far as the speaker’s desire and love are concerned.
Additionally, it could be argued that the feminine line endings (the fact that each line ends with an unstressed syllable) makes the rhyming pattern more subtle; since these rhyming sounds are unstressed, they are given less emphasis within the poem. This makes the poem as a whole feel both beautifully crafted, and in a sense, natural—much as the speaker depicts the fair youth’s beauty as both a work of fine art (a painting) and a creation of nature.
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Speaker
-
While the speaker of “Sonnet 20” remains unidentified, most critics view the speaker as a representation of the poet, William Shakespeare. Several aspects of the poem support this reading.
First, the poem expresses love and desire in ways that feel both deeply personal and highly specific; what the speaker notices and praises in the fair youth is distinct and seems to emerge from real, lived experience. Additionally, the poem is part of a collection of sonnets that were published, in 1609, without Shakespeare’s authorization; it's been reported that a local publisher effectively “pirated” the sonnets. This has led some scholars to regard the sonnets as private missives, unintended for a more public audience.
The poem arguably contains clues to the identity of the fair youth as well, which would also identify the speaker of the poem as Shakespeare. Some critics have read the poem’s repetition of the word “hue” and “hues” (in Shakespeare’s time, spelled hew or hews) as a clue to the identity of the poem’s addressee. Scholars have speculated that the letters “h” and “e” refer either to William Herbert (the Third Earl of Pembroke) or Henry Wriothesley (the Third Earl of Southampton), both of whom were patrons of Shakespeare. In this reading, the poem may deliberately connect the “He” of “Herbert” or “Henry,” with “w” and “s,” the initials of William Shakespeare.
Over time, critics have argued for different interpretations of the speaker and his sexuality. While many modern readers regard the poem as a clear expression of what would now be considered gay or queer love, some scholars have argued against this reading of the poem. These critics cite the speaker’s apparent conformity to heterosexual norms, since the speaker seems to suggest that nature has created the fair youth’s male body “for women’s pleasure.”
In actual fact, however, the speaker leaves the possibility of his own physical intimacy with the fair youth ambiguous; it could well be that the speaker simply acknowledges the possibility that the fair youth will also continue to have sexual relationships with women—a likelihood that accords with social expectations of the time.
What is clear about the speaker is his love, admiration, and passionate attraction for the fair youth, which he communicates throughout the poem. The speaker is steadfast in this love, and in his expression of it, in contrast to the “shifting change” of “false women”—and also, implicitly, in contrast to the "shifting change" in the many interpretations of the poem that have followed.
-
-
“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Setting
-
While “Sonnet 20” doesn’t depict a clear physical setting, the poem evokes several settings that are important to its meaning. First, the poem invokes a natural setting in which nature “first created” the fair youth. The speaker describes nature as having “painted” the young man’s face, and later says that nature “fell a-doting”—or became overly affectionate—while creating the fair youth.
The poem also implicitly conveys public settings in which the speaker has seen the fair youth interact with other people. When the speaker says that the fair youth’s beauty “steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth,” he conjures settings in which the speaker, the fair youth, and numerous other people are present. Within these public scenes, it is the fair youth who stands apart in his beauty and commanding presence.
Finally, and most importantly, the poem conjures a private setting—what might also be considered the emotional setting of the poem—in which the speaker can address the fair youth directly, and openly express his love. Presumably, the speaker utters the poem, and recounts his love and desire for this young man, in a setting apart from the public and even natural scenes that the poem has evoked. This third, implied setting suggests that the speaker and fair youth share a relationship and bond untouched by nature’s intervening actions, and also by the public settings that the fair youth also inhabits. The poem emerges, then, from this private setting of the relationship between the speaker and the fair youth, an emotional setting that the speaker implies always exists, even alongside the more public worlds the poem describes.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
Literary Context
“Sonnet 20” belongs to a sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets addressed to a “fair youth,” an unidentified young man with whom the speaker is in an intimate relationship, and for whom the speaker expresses love, desire, and admiration. Of the collection of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets published in 1609, critics differ on how many are addressed to the fair youth; many of the sonnets expressing love do not specify the gender of the person they address, and later sonnets in the collection are addressed to a different beloved, often referred to as the “dark lady.”
Over time, critics have sought to identify the “fair youth” and the “dark lady.” The most likely candidates for the “fair youth” are William Herbert, the Third Earl of Pembroke, and Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton. (For more on the fair youth's identity, check out the Resources section of this guide.)
Some scholars also speculate that Shakespeare’s sonnets were not intended for public readership, and even that Shakespeare may have tried to suppress their publication because of their homoerotic content. It may be that the sonnets were, in fact, intended as private poems, missives to the people to whom they were addressed. They stand in contrast with Shakespeare’s plays in their remarkably personal nature, though the sonnets, too, contain layers of coding and word play that make many aspects of them remain elusive.
The fair youth sonnets, "Sonnet 20 included," have provoked continual debate over the poems' speaker and his sexuality. While many contemporary readers take the poems as clear expressions of gay love and desire, some critics have argued that the speaker expresses primarily platonic love for the young man and disavows the potential of physical intimacy with the fair youth. Ultimately, however, the speaker offers a clear vision of his love for, and attraction to, the fair youth, leaving ambiguous the possibility of physical intimacy in their relationship but asserting the strength of the bond between them.
Historical Context
The historical context of “Sonnet 20” is important to the poem’s meaning and to the many ways the poem has been read—and published—over time. Importantly, Shakespeare wrote these sonnets during a period in which to be openly gay was not only illegal but also dangerous. While the Renaissance, with its emphasis on science, art, and creativity, was a period of relative freedom in which homosexuality was less frequently prosecuted, it was still profoundly unsafe for people to openly express what would now be considered gay or queer love. Additionally, even if, in certain circles, there was tacit acceptance of physical intimacy between two men or two women, what was impossible was for these men or women to have a relationship, or at least to sustain such a relationship publicly and openly.
Within this context, all of Shakespeare’s “fair youth” sonnets are radical in their clarity and their praise for this young man. From this sonnet’s challenging of gender norms (the “fair youth” is not only masculine or feminine, but both), to the speaker’s assertion that what matters most is the relationship between the two, the poem turns many assumptions of Renaissance England upside down.
Perhaps for this reason, after the sonnets were first published in 1609, subsequent publishers sought to change the poems in order to suppress and erase their homoerotic content. In editions published until 1780, editors created new versions of the poems, deliberately misgendering the “fair youth” to make the poems appear as though the male writer is addressing a woman.
In a way, this attempt to read the poems through a heteronormative lens has persisted in modern scholarship, as some critics have argued that the poems reflect not an expression of gay love, but only of platonic affection. The sonnets in their original form, however, remain intact for contemporary readers to explore, discover, and understand on their own terms.
-
More “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Who Is the "Fair Youth"? — Learn more about the potential addressee of "Sonnet 20" in this essay, which includes an analysis of the poem's repetition of the letters "h," "e," "w," and "s"—though to be clues to the "fair youth's" identity.
-
Biography of William Shakespeare — Learn more about Shakespeare's life—and his life as a poet—in this article from the Poetry Foundation website.
-
The "Fair Youth" Sonnets — Read more about Shakespeare's “fair youth” sonnets, and how they have been interpreted in terms of gender and sexuality, in this essay from the British Library.
-
Early Portrait of Henry Wriothesley — View an early portrait of Henry Wriothesley, one possible addressee of Shakespeare's "fair youth" sonnets. In this portrait, Wriothesley is depicted wearing rouge, lipstick, and earrings, with long, flowing hair, and critics have dated this painting to the time period when Shakespeare wrote his sonnets.
-
Article about Henry Wriothesley — Read more about Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, who some critics have taken to be the "fair youth" of Sonnet 20 and the other sonnets in this sequence.
-
Stolen Sonnets — Shakespeare's sonnets were first published without his authorization, by a local publisher who essentially "pirated" the poems from the poet. Read this article from NPR to learn more about this unauthorized publication, and why Shakespeare may have tried to prevent it.
-
-
LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare
-
