• Metaphor: One of the poem’s central ideas is the extended metaphor of life as a theatre. The world is presented as a stage on which the speaker plays a variety of heartfelt events for the viewer, who stands in for the beloved.
• Personification: The speaker personifies his love, describing her as a spectator sitting idly, delighting, mocking, and hardening her heart.
• Enjambment: The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, as seen in “And mask in myrth lyke to a Comedy:” and “But when I laugh she mocks, and when I cry,” contributes to the natural flow of the poem.
• Irony: The poem’s emotional effect is further enhanced by the ironic juxtaposition between the speaker’s true feelings and the beloved’s apathetic response.
• Rhetorical question: The question posed in the lines “What then can move her? if not merth nor mone,” is rhetorical, serving to highlight the speaker’s perplexity and frustration.
• Paradox: A figure of speech known as a paradox occurs when a statement seems to contradict itself. “But when I laugh she mocks, and when I cry/ She laughs, and hardens evermore her heart.” In this statement, there is a contradiction of ideas when the phrases laughing and crying are used together.

Sonnet 54 Summary

1. Imagery: “crookèd leg,” “blearèd eye,” “part deformed” – These phrases create vivid mental images of physical imperfections. The imagery is used to emphasize the absence of such imperfections.
2. Metaphor: “Nor yet so ugly half can be/ As is the inward, suspicious mind.” The comparison between the horror of physical imperfections and the inward, suspicious mind is metaphorical. It suggests that the mind can be metaphorically ugly in contrast to the physical half.
3. Enjambment: “No crookèd leg, no blearèd eye, / No part deformed out of kind,” The use of enjambment (continuation of a sentence without a pause) between these lines maintains a smooth flow, linking the physical descriptions seamlessly.
4. Repetition: The repetition of the negative “no” emphasizes the absence of physical deformities. The repetition of the phrase “No part deformed out of kind” reinforces the idea of bodily integrity.

No Crookèd Leg, No Blearèd Eye Summary