THEME OF THE SONNET 116

Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116" is one of 154 sonnet that the

poet wrote in Shakespearean sonnet style. Each sonnet
consists of 14 lines following an "a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f,
g-g" rhyming pattern. Most of Shakespeare's sonnets
explore themes of love. "Sonnet 116" centers on the
meaning of true love.
It is about love in its most ideal form. The poet
praises the glories of lovers who have come to each
other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust
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 is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any
crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to
measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we
fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known
– it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third
quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is
unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to
the edge of doom", or death.
In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is
mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of
perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on
love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in
fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really
loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes.

The theme of this famous sonnet concerns the

transcendent nature of true love and how it overcomes
any barriers or obstructions. True love, the speaker
argues, does not change or alter with the passing of time,
or with the fading of beauty and youth. Even though love
is influenced by time, love is still more powerful than
time, as the following quote proves:
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.
Time does of course impact beauty and the appearance
of love's adherents, but it does not impact love itself, as
true love remains constant "even to the edge of doom,"
or up until death itself, and, in some cases, beyond. In
many ways, therefore the poem is a pageant to the
power of true love and its constancy, which also serves a
double purpose: the speaker, after all, professes this kind
of love for his beloved, and the more successfully and
poignantly he captures the might of love the greater his
chance of being heard with favourable ears by the object
of his affection.
One of the more important themes in "Sonnet 116" is the
concept that "Love alters not." It is an everlasting force
that cannot wear down when it faces challenges or wane
over time. Shakespeare uses many metaphors containing
natural imagery to make his point; for example, he claims
that love is "an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests
and is never shaken." He repeats similar words to stress
that love is not truly love when it does not last: "love is
not love/Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends
with the remover to remove."
Shakespeare also presents love as something that is
invaluable: "It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose
worth's unknown, although his height be taken." One can
know that love is an important force, but cannot ever
conceive its true value.
Shakespeare emphasizes his theme of love as a constant
by challenging the concept that love can break down
over time. He writes that "Love is not Time's fool," and
that it "alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But
bears it out even to the edge of doom."
This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what
it is and is not which is basically the theme of this entire
sonnet.