Sonnet 116
Let me not the the marriage of true minds
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover remove.
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring 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.
SONNET 116 - COMMENTARY
Sonnet 116 is about
in its most ideal form. It is
of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a
on trust and understanding.
The first four lines reveal the poet's
in love that is
strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds." The following lines
that true love is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will
crisis.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.
the
based
and
any
I hope I may never
any reason why minds that truly love each
other shouldn't be
together
Let me not
any reasons why two
True-minded people should not be
.
Let me not: may I
The marriage of true minds: The first two lines are a "manifest
to the
words of the Marriage Service: 'If any of you know
or just impediment
why these two persons should not be
together in holy
; cf.
Much Ado 4.1.12. 'If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be
conjoined.' Where minds are true - in possessing love in the
sense dwelt
upon in the
lines - there can be no 'impediments' through change of
, outward appearance, or temporary lapses in conduct."
During a marriage ceremony the priest asks: 'If any of you know
or just
impediment why these two persons should not be
together in holy
Impediment: problem/obstacle/obstruction
Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover remove.
1
Love isn't really love if it
when it
sees the beloved change or if it
when the beloved leaves.
Love is not love
Which
when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is
:
Alters: change
Love is not love: love is
really love
Or bends with the remover remove: i.e., deviates ("bends") to
("remove") with the
of the lover.
its course
O, no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
Oh no, love is a
and
light that shines on
without being
shaken;
Oh no! it is a
That sees storms but it never shaken;
It is an ever-fixed mark: : i.e., a
(mark = sea-mark).
Ever-fixed mark: lighthouse
In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to
love to some degree,
but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual
cannot be
known – it remains a
.
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
it is the star that guides every
boat. And like a star, its
is beyond
measure, though its height can be
.
Love is the
north star to every lost ship,
Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
It is the star to every wand’ring bark, : i.e., the star that
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
can never truly be
, although its
height can be
.
Bark: boat/ship
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love is not under time's
, though
time has the power to
rosy lips and
cheeks.
Love is not at the
of Time, though physical
Comes within the compass of his sickle.
2
Within his bending sickle’s compass come : 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
of death
Love’s not Time’s fool : i.e., love is not at the
of Time.
his: i.e., Time's
The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12),
the perfect nature of
that is unshakeable
time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or
death.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Love does not alter with the
of
brief hours and weeks, but
until
Doomsday.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it
until the last day of life.
edge of doom. : i.e., Doomsday.
In the final couplet, the poet
that, if he is
about the
constant,
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
love
inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet
.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
If I'm wrong
this and can be
proven wrong, I never wrote, and no
ever loved.
If I am proved wrong about these
on love
Then I
all that I have written, and
no man has ever [truly] loved.
If this be error and upon me proved : i.e., proved to be my error.
FIGURES OF SPEECH USED IN THE POEM
Metaphor line 1: true minds Two
who love each other and wants to get
married is compared with
true or honest feelings in their minds
Alliteration line 2: Love is not love.
of the letter L
Assonance line 3: Which
when alteration finds. Repetition of the letter
A.
Metaphor line 5: Love is an ever fixed mark. Love is like a
, something
that never moves,
Personification line 6: that looks on
. 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
bark. Love is like the star that
gives direction to every moving ship.
Personification line 9: Time is personified because it is
with a capital
letter and
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.
3