Sonnet 116
By William Shakespeare
1564-1616
What are the ideal characteristics of a loving relationship?
• In this poem, Shakespeare gives us his idea of the characteristics of a really lasting love between two people.
SONNET 116
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 wandering 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.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds�Admit impediments.
What is the poet saying here?
What kind of love is suggested by the first line? (: This is often interpreted as ‘true love’ – do you agree?)
The sonnet starts with a negative wish ‘let me not’
True = unchanging, faithful, truthful
: This is reminiscent of the marriage ceremony: “If any of you know cause of just impediment why these two persons should not be conjoined together in holy matrimony…”
Notice how the enjambment keeps the ‘impediment’ and the ‘marriage of true minds’ separated.
How does this metaphor add to the idea of love presented here?
Accept; agree that there are
Love is not love�Which alters when it alteration finds,�Or bends with the remover to remove:�
Another negative. Love is being defined by what it is not.
One who moves or changes
To make oneself different- contrary to ‘unmoving’ or unchangeable
What is the poet saying here?
How is love being defined? What qualities does it have?
What is the effect of the poet’s use of repetition?
[The use of the word ‘alter’ reinforces the earlier metaphor of marriage]
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, �That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;�
: a ‘sea mark’ in Elizabethan times was a nautical image – a lighthouse or spire of a coastal church; an ‘ever-fixed’ mark for the ships to navigate by.
Because of their height, the sea-marks would ‘look [down] on’ the storm below; their solidity and height meant the storm would have no effect on them.
How does this metaphor add to the idea of love described?
What is the poet saying here?
How is love being defined? What qualities does it have?
What is the effect of the poet’s shift from what love is not to what love is?
How does the poem mark this shift?
A shift in tone: love is
It is the star to every wandering bark,�Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.�
Bark = ship
What is the poet saying here?
What is the effect of using ‘the star’ rather than ‘a star’?
What might be implied about the bark by the adjective ‘wandering’?
: Ships in Elizabethan times would navigate by the stars, particularly the unmoving North Star or Polaris.
At the time, it was not known what stars were made of (‘whose worth unknown’) although an angle of elevation above the horizon could be measured (‘his height be taken’). This measurement helped sailors measure the ship’s latitude.
What does this metaphor add to the idea of love represented?
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks �Within his bending sickle's compass come; �
A return to what love is not
Time (along with Love) is personified, and the image in the poem links him closely with the Grim Reaper and his sickle (or scythe). Here, he is reaping youth (‘rosy lips and cheeks’). He is also pictured, as convention dictates, with a time-piece or compass- this could refer to the arc of the circle created by his scythe, or it could be an extension of the nautical metaphor of the previous lines.
What is the effect of the inclusion of Time here?
AO3: Elizabethans would recognise a reference to the ‘fool’ of the King; a court jester whose wit livened up the day but whose position was precarious at best.
What is the poet saying here?
What is the effect of these images? What do they add to the idea of love presented by the poet?
Alliteration echoes the sound of the clock ticking (time passing)
�Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, �But bears it out even to the edge of doom.�
‘His’ refers to Time – this is an extension of the metaphor introduced in the previous lines
A repetition of the idea that love ‘alters not’
What is the poet saying here?
What is the effect of the repetition of the idea that love ‘alters not’?
Why is it significant that Time’s hours and weeks are ‘brief’? How do they compare to Love?
What does the word ‘But’ mark a return to? Why has the poet chosen to do this here, at the end of the final quatrain?
: ‘edge of doom’ is a reference to Doomsday, or the end of the world and time itself. It could also be a reference to an individual’s day of death.
Which do you find the most likely here?
Endures; continues faithfully
�If this be error and upon me proved,�I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
What is the poet saying here?
What is the effect of the shift from love to the poet himself: what he has said about love?
Can he be proved wrong? How does the last line add to the challenge of this?
Why has he ended the poem this way?
If evidence can be provided that I am wrong in these ideas…
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 wandering 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.
Marriage
Is this a traditional or typical image of marriage?
Marriage is a formal contract and, in Shakespeare’s time, it was far from a contract between equals. Women were more or less surrendered into the control of their husbands when they got married. Was this a marriage of true minds? Is Shakespeare using a more idealistic, transcendent vision of marriage?
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 wandering 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.
Other images?
What other images of love are in the sonnet?
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 wandering 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.
Can you identify the rhyme scheme?
Let me not to the marriage of true minds A�Admit impediments. Love is not love B�Which alters when it alteration finds, A�Or bends with the remover to remove: B�O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, C�That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; D�It is the star to every wandering bark, C�Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. D�Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks E�Within his bending sickle's compass come; F�Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, E�But bears it out even to the edge of doom. F�If this be error and upon me proved, G�I never writ, nor no man ever loved. G
Shakespeare’s sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains, and a final couplet composed in iambic pentameter. Sonnet 116 follows this structure and this meter.
The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Often, the beginning of the third quatrain marks the volta ("turn"), or the line in which the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a revelation or epiphany.
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 wandering 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.
The structure and form of this sonnet are entirely standard.