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William Shakespeares

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true

minds


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Full text1. Let me not to the marriage of true minds

2. Admit impediments. Love is not love3. Which alters when it alteration finds,

4. Or bends with the remover to 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 wandering 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.


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What is a sonnet?A poem of 14 lines.

There are two types:

The Italian/Petrarchan sonnet:

A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme

scheme abba abba,followed by a sestet with therhyme scheme: cdecde or cdcdcd

Shakespearean/Elizabethan sonnet:

A sonnet consisting of three quatrains (four lines

each) and a rhyming couplet with the rhyme

scheme: abab cdcd efef gg


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Line 1 - 2

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments.

The speaker says he would not like to preventthe marriage of people whos minds are trueto each other.

Links to the traditional church ceremony whenthe congregation is asked if they know of anyreason why the couple should not be joined.


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Line 2 - 4

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

If a persons love changes whenever there is theslightest chance or is so easily removedthen

that is not true love. Love should not be affected by outside forces

such as alteration or removers


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Line 5 - 6

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

The poet now describes the qualities of love

as being a permanent emotion.

The speaker uses the metaphor of love being aever-fixed mark which can face tempests

(storms) and remain unmoved.

Exclamation mark

indicates a strong

reaction.


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Line 9 - 10

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love is not affected by time even though thephysical features of beauty rosy lips and cheeksare all destroyed by time.

his bending sickle introduces theideaof death and personifies

death as a man

Timegiven

importance by the

capital letter.


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Line 11 - 12

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Love does not change over timeit stands

firm for all eternity.

Hours and weeks seem like a lot of time as we goabout our daily lives but in the context of Time

it is brief (short).

Refers to Time again


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Line 1314: The rhyming couplet

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

The speaker (Shakespeare himself) says that ifhe is wrong about love then

nothing he has written is real and

nobody has ever been truly in love.

Seeing as both the above are obviously untrue,then Shakespeare is proved correct about love.


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Summary: Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It

praises lovers who have come to each otherfreely, and enter into a relationship based ontrust 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 isindeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any

crisis.

In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be ableto measure love to some degree, but this does

not mean we fully understand it.


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Love's actual worth cannot be knownit remainsa mystery.

The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12),confirms the perfect nature of love that isunaffected throughout time and remains so "ev'nto the edge of doom", or death.

In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he ismistaken about the constant, unmovable natureof perfect love, then he must take back all hiswritings on love, truth, and faith.

Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judgedlove inappropriately, no man has ever reallyloved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes.

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