“Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique.“ In order to understand a poem, the reader has to get into it and read it as they feel it, paying attention to the language and tone of the poem, which would be the attitude. As well as having a technique to help understand such as looking up confusing words, connecting related ideas, listening to its sound and rhythm and paying attention to repeated words and literary techniques used by the author. In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like The Sun” the author uses irony to emphasize the beauty of his mistress, by comparing her to things that show she’s not perfect but he still loves her. “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” (Shakespeare lines 2-4) It took me a while to understand because I wasn’t really getting the point, but then I realized he was comparing her and being realistic about the woman he loves, as many poems try to idealize and exaggerate woman’s beauty, he did the opposite. My attitude while reading this changed after I read it a few times, at first I was confused, then i read it as a love poem and my technique was just reading it and trying to figure out the author’s message, technique and ideas.