At first glance, this sonnet appears to be rather insulting to the person it is directed at. The speaker is going on about how his mistress is unattractive. The sun is not like her eyes, her lips are not red, her skin is dark, her hair is wiry, her cheeks are not rosy, and her breath smells bad. However, in the couplet he says that he still loves her and that he believes his love is rare.
This sonnet might not actually be as insulting as it seems. The speaker could be trying to say that love is more than skin deep. He does not need her to have traditional good looks for him to love her. He could also be saying that his woman is not traditionally good looking, but has beauty that is all her own. Shakespeare could also have written this sonnet to mock most Italian sonnets, which usually compare someone to the sun and roses and other things of that sort.
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