Sonnet 116: Let me not to the
CENTRAL MESSAGE:
marriage of true minds explore how true love
will last, infatuation
doesn't last
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564 - 1616)
the idealistic form of true love: his intention is to declare his opinion of true love
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
declares his stand point on love
line alludes to hold matrimony: like a priest marrying two people
Admit impediments.
flaws
Love is not love
it is not TRUE if it changes. TRUE love will
survive the alterations of life and stay the
Which alters when it alteration finds, same
Or bends with the remover to remove : : introduces an explanation
a threat to their love to what true love is, and
what it can withstand
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark(a lighthouse)
reasons & explains why and what
true love will be like a lighthouse EXTENDED METAPHOR:
gives love its permanence
INTERJECTION
gives it a passionate tone
That looks on tempests
storms
and is never shaken; true love is being
compared to a ship in
even in 'storms' (bad times) TRUE love will not change
It is thelighthouse
star to every wandering
lost ship
bark, rough water, that is
being guided by a star
lost relationships
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. (lighthouse)
love is constant and permanent
even when youthfulness & beauty
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
personification of time
fades, love does not change: we are
mortal but love is eternal
changes, love does not
(capital letter for a proper noun)
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
compass is symbolic of time, and represents
even though time
an eternal ring (marriage ring)
alludes to the GRIM REAPER: a mythological character for death
who uses a sickle to come fetch (HARVEST) the people who must die
Love alters not with his itbrief hours and weeks,
wont change, even though our lives are short lived
But bears
lasts
it out even to the edge of doom.
HYPERBOLE: apocalyptical death it will last even till death
rhyming couplet If this be error and upon me prov'd,
tone change: arrogant if he is wrong (which he can't be) then no man has ever loved and he has
(contrast to previous lines) never written anything. Shakespeare did write therefore it must be
he is sure that he is right
about true love I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. TRUE what he says about love.
THEMES: STRUCTURE:
- love & relationships - Shakespearean sonnet - 3 quatrains & rhyming couplet
- time & consistency - 10 syllables per line - iambic pentameter mimics a heartbeat
- nautical (stars) - 5 stressed and 5 unstressed lines
CENTRAL MESSAGE:
marriage of true minds explore how true love
will last, infatuation
doesn't last
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564 - 1616)
the idealistic form of true love: his intention is to declare his opinion of true love
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
declares his stand point on love
line alludes to hold matrimony: like a priest marrying two people
Admit impediments.
flaws
Love is not love
it is not TRUE if it changes. TRUE love will
survive the alterations of life and stay the
Which alters when it alteration finds, same
Or bends with the remover to remove : : introduces an explanation
a threat to their love to what true love is, and
what it can withstand
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark(a lighthouse)
reasons & explains why and what
true love will be like a lighthouse EXTENDED METAPHOR:
gives love its permanence
INTERJECTION
gives it a passionate tone
That looks on tempests
storms
and is never shaken; true love is being
compared to a ship in
even in 'storms' (bad times) TRUE love will not change
It is thelighthouse
star to every wandering
lost ship
bark, rough water, that is
being guided by a star
lost relationships
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. (lighthouse)
love is constant and permanent
even when youthfulness & beauty
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
personification of time
fades, love does not change: we are
mortal but love is eternal
changes, love does not
(capital letter for a proper noun)
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
compass is symbolic of time, and represents
even though time
an eternal ring (marriage ring)
alludes to the GRIM REAPER: a mythological character for death
who uses a sickle to come fetch (HARVEST) the people who must die
Love alters not with his itbrief hours and weeks,
wont change, even though our lives are short lived
But bears
lasts
it out even to the edge of doom.
HYPERBOLE: apocalyptical death it will last even till death
rhyming couplet If this be error and upon me prov'd,
tone change: arrogant if he is wrong (which he can't be) then no man has ever loved and he has
(contrast to previous lines) never written anything. Shakespeare did write therefore it must be
he is sure that he is right
about true love I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. TRUE what he says about love.
THEMES: STRUCTURE:
- love & relationships - Shakespearean sonnet - 3 quatrains & rhyming couplet
- time & consistency - 10 syllables per line - iambic pentameter mimics a heartbeat
- nautical (stars) - 5 stressed and 5 unstressed lines
