Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

1. Sonnet 116by William Shakespeare Name Ms. Bir Class Date

2. SONNET 116 Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.   If this be error and upon me proved,   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

3. Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove: Impediments =

4. First Quatrain In the first quatrain, Shakespeare describes a “true” love as a uniting of the minds, a “marriage” in the sense of two merging into one. If a love a true, it will not be subject to any barriers or “impediments.” Love does not change or leave when it finds a fault or “alteration.” If two minds are truly one, they can not be divided by distances or absences. Shakespeare personifies “Love” in the first quatrain as an object that it can bend, change, and be physically manipulated.

5. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

6. Second Quatrain As Shakespeare builds on the personification of “Love,” he describes it as a stable, unchanging point from which nothing can force it to move. To emphasize the stability of “Love,” Shakespeare uses a metaphor in which he compares it to the ever present North Star which would be used for navigation and was continuously visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Just as the North Star was used to return sailors to their homeland, so love will always remain as a guide even when it is “taken.”

7. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

8. Third Quatrain The third quatrain begins with the shift of images from love being personified as a point that can not be physically moved, to a completely nonphysical idea that can not be changed by time. In line nine, Shakespeare changes from personifying “love” to personifying “time.” Time changes all things, even the “rosy lips” of youth to the ultimate end wherein time’s “sickle” comes to collect us all, death. The personification of love reappears in line 11 when it is described as “alters not.” It again becomes the stable, reliable point which nothing can remove.

9. If this be error and upon me proved,   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

10. Couplet The ending couplet, complete leaves the metaphor and personification of love and focuses on the truth of the poem as a whole. Shakespeare is challenging the reader to disprove his point in that true love will overcome all physical barriers. If the reader is able to disprove this poem, then there is no way Shakespeare can be credited as a writer, nor can it be stated that any man has ever truly loved.