sonnet poem

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which 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 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.

William Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 116 is a sonnet in Shakespearean form. The subject of this poem is love and the main theme is that love endures. The poet-speaker is a man who is describing love with a stately tone. Judging by the knowledge the speaker has about love, it is probably safe to assume that he is a mature adult. Throughout the poem, the poet-speaker discusses how true love cannot have alterations, how love is comparable to a guide, and finally how it can withstand time itself. The first stanza in this poem is a quatrain and its rhyme scheme is abab. Shakespeare uses alliteration, assonance, consonance, and repetition to develop this stanza, which, as a whole, states that love does not change. The first line contains an example of alliteration in the words “me,” “marriage,” and “minds.” In this line, he is referring to love as “the marriage of true minds.” He uses the alliteration of the “m” sound to draw attention to his view of love as being a type of marriage. The words “admit” and “impediments” in the second line are examples of both assonance and consonance because of the identical “i” and “m” sounds. These two words placed beside each other help give the poem a flow that makes it much more pleasing to the ear, not only because of the assonance and consonance, but also because the words almost rhyme with each other. The second, third, and fourth lines of this stanza contain repetition. “Love,” “alter,” and “remove” are repeated to put emphasis on the points that he is trying to make. He is saying that if a person is really in love he or she would not have to make changes in their lover to make themself happy, and that love cannot be taken back.The second stanza of this poem is a quatrain with a rhyme scheme of cdcd. This stanza contains assonance, a very clever metaphor, and personification in stating that love is ever-lasting and can be used as a guide in life. The words “star” and “bark” in line eight of the poem contain assonance of the “a” sound. Shakespeare uses this assonance to bring attention to the metaphor he is using, which compares love to the North Star, which is a guide for barks, or ships. By following their hearts, people can use love as a guide to get them through life. Also, the North Star is relatively permanent, and Shakespeare says love is an “ever-fixed mark” in line five of the poem. Line eight refers to a star when it says “Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” Stars have no ownership nor a set gender, so this line contains personification. Shakespeare speaks of love as if it were human to express the importance of it.The third stanza of this poem is another quatrain and its rhyme scheme is efef. Personification, assonance, and consonance help to get the point across that love is independent of time. In lines eight and nine, Shakespeare says “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come.” Even though beauty fades with time, love does not. Shakespeare personifies time to help express that love does not operate on any specific clock. He even capitalizes “Time” as if it were a real person’s name. He also personifies death in line nine when he refers to the bending sickle, which would be the weapon of the infamous Grimm Reaper. Death can take away physical traits, but not

true love. Assonance can be found in line eleven in the words “brief” and “week.” Shakespeare purposely includes this assonance to add to the rhythm of the poem while he expresses his view of love as not yielding to time or any other force. The use of the words “but” and “bear” in line twelve of the poem is an example of alliteration. Shakespeare uses these words to help express that love can survive anything on its own despite the pressures and influences of time.The fourth and final stanza of this poem is a couplet with a rhyme scheme of gg. In this stanza, the poet-speaker boasts how confident he is in his opinion of love, suggesting that if his opinion is wrong, no one has ever loved. The end rhyme of these two lines is slant rhyme because “proved” and “loved” do not rhyme exactly. In line fourteen, the poet-speaker declares “I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” The words “never,” “no,” and “nor” are an example of alliteration. These negative words are used to strengthen the poet-speaker’s certainty of his opinion of love. Line fourteen also has internal rhyme. “Never” and “ever” are positioned before the word “loved”. Shakespeare uses this internal rhyme to make it clear that the speaker has full faith in his own words.William Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 116 is an excellent poem. Using multiple literary tools, such as metaphors, personification, and internal rhyme, Shakespeare has created a masterpiece that describes love by what it is and is not. Because of the brilliant use of tools and flow in this poem, it will remain one of the best poems ever written.

Synopsis and Analysis

Lines seven and eight may require some explanation to those not familiar with the terms used: a bark, or barque, is a sailing vessel; and stars were used for navigation at sea, known as celestial navigation. Therefore, the star to a wandering bark is the fixed mark in the sky which can be relied upon for guidance. Thus love is the 'ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken'.
Line eight specifically has come in for varied analysis by a number of commentators. The worth gleaned from height has been seen by some as a reference to the elevation of the star used in navigation. An alternative explanation is that displacement of the ship may be used by some to gauge the value of the cargo aboard. The theme of sailing and ships is prevalent here, so the displacement of a ship to detail its worth is more likely than a star's height.
Commentary
The persona aims to describe to the reader the nature of love through what love is not, and uses techniques such as repetition and allusions to the Episcopal Book to do this. In the opening lines of the sonnet, the persona bids the reader to “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ Admit impediments.” It is inevitable that we make a connection to the Episcopal Book, where it is stated, “…if either of you do know any impediment why you may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, that ye confess it.” While it is important to recognize the significance of this allusion, in this sonnet the persona is using this reference mainly to emphasize the communion of two people through their common factor, love. The phrase "or bends with the remover to remove" implies, however, that true love continues even when it is not shared, when it is no longer a "common factor." True love, that is, is both unconditional and eternal.
The first line acts as a prologue for the poem and is followed by the main content of the sonnet. Shakespeare uses enjambment in the second line to create a sense of acceleration and move the reader away from the opening and into the depths of the poem. The persona goes on to say that true love will endure all obstacles, as is evident in the line, “or alters when it alteration finds,” where the use of repetition of “alter” connotes an instability of superficial love, which changes when faced with change. In the first quatrain, the persona aims to define love through what it is not, while in the next quatrain he defines love based on what it is: eternal and unconditional

commitment.

The persona uses metaphorical comparison, personification and epithet very effectively in demonstrating the guiding, stable, determined nature of love. Shakespeare describes love as an “ever-fixed mark,/ that
looks on tempest, and is never shaken;” The use of the epithet “ever-fixed” for mark creates an image of a solid wall of courage and determination in the face of a menacing ocean storm. A tempest means
certain trouble to a sailor, but the courageous face of love does not falter in the presence of this intimidating image. The use of the phrase, “O no;” slows the pace of the poem and foreshadows the metaphor that is to follow. Love is presented as a guiding force through the use of the metaphor, “It is the star to every wandering bark.” The use of the verb “wandering” creates a sense of aimlessness and confusion the “barks,” or boats have, and the need for the North Star to guide them on their way. Whilst the image created by the word “star” is one of guidance, it also connotes a brilliance that love has as it shines about all else in the heavens above. In the sonnet love is effectively described as a guiding and courageous force, which is then succeeded by an image of eternality and endurance created after the volta.
It is important that Shakespeare makes reference to “fool,” given the socio-historical context in which this sonnet was written. As we see others of Shakespeare’s works, a fool is often a joker present only for the entertainment of nobility. In this sonnet, time is that nobility. Shakespeare wishes to create an image that love is not dependent or victim to the forces of external factors. In the line, “sickle’s compass come;” alliteration is used to echo the destructive forces of time. The harsh “c” sound is onomatopoeic and emphases the impeding nature of time. A sense beyond time and place is created in the lines leading up to the couplet, as the persona states that “Love alters not with his brief hour and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.” Love in these lines is seen be an enduring force, and will persevere until “the edge of doom,” or Judgment Day, if not beyond. The long vowel sound in the verb “bears,” when juxtaposed with the harsher “c” sound of the lines before, emphasizes the eternal nature of love. The rhyming couplet of this sonnet is somewhat an anti-climax. For twelve lines the persona carefully defines and describes love by a variety of means, while the final two lines do not make any sort of profound suggestion. The final quasi-rhyming couplet is more a statement than a resolution, but nevertheless a bold one. The final couplet states, “If this be error, and upon me prov’d,/ I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.” That is, those who know the fullness of love understand its eternal and unconditional nature. The emphatic statement at the end is thus a repudiation of all lesser conceptions of love, including a merely romantic conception.
This sonnet is recognized as one of the premier sonnets of William Shakespeare. The eloquent use of allusion and metaphorical imagery aid the dreamy purpose of personifying love and to show the knowledge of the author of the timelessness and power of love.