WHAT IS A SONNET?
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14 lines
Octave
Sestet
Prescribed rhyme scheme
Concerned with single thought or sentiment
Shakespearian sonnet and Italian sonnet.
 Octave rhymescheme =
abbaabba
 Sestet = cdecde
 Octave presents theme in first
quatrain, develops in second
 Sestet reflects upon theme in
first three and brings it to close
in the second three lines.
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Allows for break between
octave and sestet
Composed in three
quatrains and final
clinching couplet
Abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Sonnet 116
1. Let me not to the marriage of true minds
2. Admit impediments. Love is not love
3. Which alters when alteration finds,
4. Or bends with the remover remove.
5. O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
6. That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
7. It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
8. Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
9. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
10. Within his bending sickle's compass come;
11. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
12. But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
13. If this be error and upon me proved,
14. I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
SONNET 116 - COMMENTARY
Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form.
It is praising the glories of lovers who have
come to each other freely, and enter into a
.
relationship based on trust and understanding
The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in
love that is constant and strong, and will not
"alter when it alteration finds." The following
lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "everfix'd mark" which will survive any crisis
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1. Let me not to the marriage true
of minds
2. Admit impediments.
I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why
minds that truly love each other shouldn't be
joined together.
Let me not declare any reasons why two
True-minded people should not be married.
Let me not: may I never
The marriage of true minds: The first two lines are a
"manifest allusion to the words of the Marriage Service: 'If
any of you know cause or just impediment why these two
persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony',
speak now or forever hold your peace.
impediments: obstruction, reason
During the wedding service the priest says: If any of you know cause or just impediment why
these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold
your peace.
2.
Love is not love
3. Which alters when alteration finds,
4. Or bends with the remover remove.
Interpretation 1
Love isn't really love if it changes when it sees the
beloved change or if it disappears when the
beloved leaves.
Interpretation 2
Love is not love
Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
5. O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
6. That looks on tempests and is never
shaken;
storms
Oh no, love is a constant and unchanging
light that shines on storms without being
shaken;
Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That sees storms but it never shaken;
It is an ever-fixed mark:: i.e., a lighthouse (mark = sea-mark). :
7. It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
8. Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Wand’ring - sailing
around on the
ocean.
bark
In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to
measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we
fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known –
it remains a mystery.
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Definition: i.e., the star that guides every lost ship (guiding star
= Polaris).
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
The subject here is still the north star.
The star's true value can never truly be calculated, although its
height can be measured.
9. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips
and cheeks
10. Within his bending sickle's compass
come;
Love is not under time's power, though
time has the power to destroy rosy lips
and cheeks.
Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Comes within the compass of his sickle.
Time leads to old age.
Time is addressed as a person,
therefore it is an example of
personification
Example of Apostrophe: Time is
abstract but is addressed
directly as if it is a person.
Rosy lips and cheeks – this
photo shows the effect of
time on a face that had rosy
cheeks and red lips
Sickle: Death carries a sickle and harvests the
people who are to old to keep on living.
10. Within his bending sickle's compass come
Definition: i.e., physical beauty falls within the range
("compass") of Time's curved blade. Note the comparison
of Time to the Grim Reaper, the scythe-wielding
personification of death
Love's not Time's fool : i.e., love is not at the
mercy of Time.
his: i.e., Time's
Physical
Time does not influence the
intensity of the love.
Love does not change as
time goes by.
Beauty
The remaining lines of the third quatrain (912), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that
is unshakeable throughout time and
remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or
death
11. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
12. But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Love does not alter with the passage of brief
hours and weeks, but lasts until Doomsday.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
Alter = change
edge of doom. : i.e., Doomsday.
The end of the world
In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is
mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of
perfect love, then he must take back all his writings
on love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he
has in fact judged love inappropriately (incorrectly),
no man has ever really loved in the ideal sense that
the poet talks about.
13. If this be error and upon me proved,
14. I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
If I'm wrong about this and can be proven
wrong, I never wrote, and no man ever loved.
If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly]
loved.
If this be error and upon me
proved :
If I am wrong about love and
someone proves it:
Metaphor line 1: true minds
Two people who love each other and
wants to get married is compared
with having true or honest feelings in
their minds
Alliteration line 2:
Love is not love.
Repetition of the letter L
Assonance line 3:
Which alters when alteration finds.
Repetition of the letter A.
Metaphor line 5:
Love is an ever fixed mark.
Love is like a star, something
that never moves,
Personification line 6:
that looks on tempests.
A fixed mark cannot look. Look is a
human quality and a fixed mark is
something dead.
Metaphor line 7:
It is the star to every moving
bark.
Love is like the star that gives
direction to every moving ship.
Personification
Apostrophe line 9:
Time is personified because it
is written with a capital letter
and addressed as if it is a
person.
Metaphor line 10:
Time is like a bending sickle
where the bending sickle
refers to the sickle death
uses to reap the death.