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Casey Flaim
Brit Lit 1
02 May 2013
True Loves Power:
An Explication of William Shakespeares 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 5
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandring 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; 10
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 Shakespeares sonnet 116 is an Italian sonnet in form. Throughout the sonnet,
the message of what defines true love is relayed to the reader. Many of Shakespeares sonnets
explain the rules and confines of love and sonnet 116 is no different. Through this sonnet
Shakespeare seeks to differentiate between what someone should not do when they experience
love and what a person should do. Also, what it will feel like when someone does experience a
love that is genuinely true.
The first four lines of the sonnet highlight specifically what Shakespeare feels someone
should not do in a relationship. He starts off by saying that marriage between two minds should
not let in any impediments or obstructions (1-2). In these lines it seems as though he is not
talking about marriage as we know it today, like a structured ceremony, but as a strong bond of
two people on an emotional level which he seems to look at as true love. Shakespeare goes on to
Commented [CAF1]: This paper represents a time while I
was writing when I only had to worry about my thoughts and
what I thought about the poem. I struggled with this concept
a little simply because I was not sure exactly how I felt about
the poem at first enough to have my own opinion. One
scholar who I feel would agree with this dilemma of finding
your own voice in your writing would be Fan Shen. In his
essay The Classroom and the Wider Culture Shen
expresses his uneasiness with writing from his own
perspective and voicing his own opinions.
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say that true love is not love which tends to change if the person finds an alteration in their
partner or in some other aspect of their life (2-3). This generally says that a true love cannot be
changed by any outside source or even any change within the relationship itself because it is such
a strong force. Accompanying the rules what love should not do the sonnet says that love should
not bend with the remover to remove (4). These lines seem to say that in a relationship if one
person starts to lose love for the other person, they should not bend with that other person to be
separate from one another. Instead, they should try to work on their relationship. Also, that if the
relationship does end, one does not ever truly stop loving that person, and if they do, according
to Shakespeare they are not considered to be experiencing true love.
In the next quatrain, the content of the sonnet changes upon Shakespeares exclamation
of O no! This marks the beginning of him addressing what makes up someone being truly in
love. It starts by saying that love is an ever fixed landmark that looks on tempests or storms
but is never shaken (5-6). The fact that the word landmark is used creates the image that true
love is a strong structure that is honored and will never be taken down. Also, the use of the word
tempests in line six is meant to symbolize the struggles that two people will have to face
throughout their relationship. So, true love being the sturdy landmark that it is, it will never falter
to any fights or complications, but will continue to be strong regardless. The landmark that love
is compared to is then learned to be the star to every wandering bark, whose worth unknown,
although his height be taken. (7-8) meaning the North Star that every ship looks upon for
guidance. The reason Shakespeare says that the stars worth is unknown yet its height is still
taken seems to be imagery for love and how no one ever truly knows the outcome of it. For
example, no one who gets in a relationship knows if it will last, or if that person is really the one
Commented [CAF2]: Going off of the last comment, I
never actually use the word I at all in this paper. I
maneuver around it by using phrases such as These lines
seem or the reason Shakespeare says this is because I
feel that the reason behind this is due to not being
comfortable using I in my writing because formalist rules
deem that as wrong.
Commented [CAF3]: My process when writing this text
was a lot like the way the NCTE views writing in Beliefs
about the Teaching of Writing. The NCTE says that writing
is a tool for thinking and that when you are writing, you
have a constant flow of new ideas. I completely agree with
this statement because while writing this piece I found that I
was learning and thinking of new ideas as I was writing. This
was a very eye opening experience because I realized how
strong my work was becoming with each new idea.
Commented [CAF4]: From a teaching perspective I feel
that my writing here is a good example of a writing sample
that aligns with PDESASs standard 1.4.12.C. Write
persuasive pieces for 12
th
grade writing. This standard
includes:
Using rhetorical strategies (e.g. exposition, narrartion,
description, argumentation, or some combiunation thereof)
to support the main argument or position.
Clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant
evidence, including facts, quotations, expressions of
commonly accepted beliefs, and logical reasoning.
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for them. Though, Shakespeare seems to say that if you are truly in love you trust that person,
take love to new heights, let it lead you places, and have no regrets.
Next, the last quatrain switches the topic yet again. Now, Shakespeare discusses how
aspects of time effect true love. These lines start out by remarking that love is not a fool of Time
(9). The first thing that is noticed about this line is that Shakespeare is now referring to time as a
person, which makes sense of Time being capitalized in the line. Time in this poem is referring
to the Grim Reaper, the one who controls someones time life on Earth. Shakespeare goes on to
point out that yes, the Grim Reaper does control who dies and ensures that their beauty will fade
with age (9-10). However, love can still last through this process. The sonnet claims that love
does not change despite the Grim Reapers little hours that he allows us to have on Earth (11).
True love lasts through this dilemma and bears it out even to the edge of doom (12). Signifying
that true love will be able to last until Judgement Day.
Finally, like almost all of Shakespeares sonnets, the couplet marks another change in the
sonnet and raises another topic to the readers. In this particular sonnet Shakespeare presents his
readers with almost a cocky remark. The lines say if this be error and upon me proved, I never
writ, nor no man ever loved (13-14). This seems like almost a challenge to the reader to prove
him wrong, also a challenge that is nearly impossible due to Shakespeares repercussions if
someone does try to prove him wrong. Shakespeare is so confident that he is right that he goes to
the extent of saying that if it is error and if he is proven wrong then he has never written anything
(14). This is an obviously false statement because the reader knows that Shakespeare has written
many things. Along with this, he says that if he is wrong then no man has ever loved (14). This
statement is also questionable because many people have loved someone. So, ultimately,
Commented [CAF5]: This piece also relates well with
PDESASs standard 1.2.12. E. This standard states that
students should be able to: Evaluate texual evidence to make
subtle inferences and draw on complex conclusions based on
and related to an authors implicit and explicit assumptions
and beliefs about a subject.
I feel that this assignment accurately reflects this because I
had to do an extensive amount of reading to figure out
exactly what Shakespeares beliefs about love really were
and what he was trying to convey through his work. I had to
work off of even the littlest cues to find the answer, and
most of the time even something very small such as the tone
in a single line could tell much more than excpected.
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Shakespeare is suggesting that his sonnet is the truth about true love, there are no errors in the
statements he has made, and that no one can prove him wrong.
Throughout this sonnet the main goal of Shakespeares is to prove to his readers what a
true love is. He describes the characteristics are of a love so true that it is not bound by a
wedding ceremony, but with the marriage of two minds that are intertwined forever. Shakespeare
classifies what true love is by stating both how it is and how it is not. He does so in a way that by
the end of the sonnet when the reader is told to look, and try to prove that this is not what true
love really is, the reader is most likely not in any state to say that there is error. The reader, by
this point, has already been convinced. Shakespeare essentially completes his goal, and proves
by the end that a love that meets all qualifications the sonnet states, must be a love that is true.