True Love by William Shakespeare- Sonnet 116

Summary: The poem True Love is William Shakespeares sonnet number 116. It belongs to the poets first series of sonnets addressed to certain Mr. W.H., a young man possessing excellent physical charm. Love, as was customary, is the theme dealt with in the poem. Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It is praising 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- change in cimcumstances. 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. In this sonnet, Shakespeare defines and redefines its subject True Love in each quatrain and this subject becomes increasingly concrete, attractive and vulnerable. The opening lines of the sonnet dive the reader into the theme at a rapid pace, accomplished in part by the use of enjambment - the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of poetry to the next without any form of pause, e.g., "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments ..."

The metaphors are reasonably transparent, and the theme is quickly and plainly apparent. The overarching sentiment of true love's timeless and immutable nature is presented and developed in the first eight lines, but there is no twist at the third quatrain - rather a continuation of the theme. Even the couplet is but a simple statement like "there you have it." The simplicity is noteworthy, and perhaps it was deliberate: Shakespeare's goal may have been unaffected candor, sincerity of conviction. It should come as no wonder that the lines of sonnet 116 often are quoted as Shakespeare's authentic definition of love. There is nothing to remark about the rhyming except the happy blending of open and closed vowels, and of liquids, nasals, and stops; nothing to say about the harmony except to point out how the fluttering accents in the quatrains give place in the couplet to the emphatic march of the almost unrelieved iambic feet. In short, the poet has employed one hundred and ten of the simplest words in the language and the two simplest rhyme-schemes to produce a poem which has about it no strangeness whatever except the strangeness of perfection. Sonnet 116 is a part of a sequence which is separate from all other sonnets of Shakespeare because of their sense of detachment. Structure The movement of 116, like its tone, is careful, controlled, laboriousit defines and redefines its subject in each quatrain, and this subject becomes increasingly vulnerable. Its split into three quatrains and a couplet. The sonnet starts out as motionless and distant, remote, independent then moves to be less remote, more tangible and earthbound and the couplet brings a sense of coming back down to earth. Ideal love is deteriorating throughout the sonnet and continues to do so through the couplet. Shakespeares sonnet number 116 is a superb example of the poets artistic craftsmanship, his mastery over language, his ability of creating pictures with words and imbibing these pictures with life to voice his thoughts Shakespeare is a past master in the choice and use of metaphors as evidenced by the metaphor of the pole-star in this poem. 1st Quatrain:

The poet begins by saying he shall not stand in the way of true love. Love is the union or marriage of minds true to each other. Two minds united in love never change their loyalty to each other. Love cannot be true if it changes for any reason. Love that changes when it finds occasion or opportunity for change is not love in the genuine sense of the term. It is, at its best, lust camouflaging as love. Love is strong and eternal and it is of the souls. It is steadfast and constant. It does not bend with the remover to remove. No circumstance, however strong, can sever the bonding between true minds. Love is not love when it bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful. The poet uses negation to define love in the first and third quatrains: Love is not Love is defined in vague terms in the first quatrain. There is a stress on the word me in the first line. This shows an agitated protest born out of fear of loss. The unstopped first and second lines suggest urgency in speech- not leisure meditation. There is rapid delivery here and not slow rumination. Marriage of true minds: Could indicate religious imagery- love being of God. Lines 1 and 2 echo the Anglican marriage service from the Book of Common Prayer.

2nd Quatrain The exclamation O no! at the beginning of quatrain two reinforces the steadfastness and infrangibility of love. This has been deftly done by the apt use of the pole-star (an ever-fixed mark) metaphor built into imagery. The pole-star is an ever-fixed on the northern sky. Before the invention of the mariners, compass the ship drafting in the darkness in the storms looked for the pole-star and determined the direction of their voyage. The pole-star was their guide. It was the star to every wandering bark. The pole-star looks on tempests (storms in the sea) and is never shaken. Similarly true love looks on circumstances bringing in change, but itself remains constant, unchanged. The height of the pole-star can be ascertained or is known but its worth is too immense to be measured and its influence is mysterious- cant be ascertained. Similarly true love is of immense worth or value for lovers and loves value is difficult to understand. Wandering

bark refers to a boat which has probably lost its way. The pole star acts like a guiding star and similarly, love guides- it has tremendous influence. The poets love for his friend is constant and everlasting. Even though the poets friend has found another person and his love has shifted, Shakespeares love for his friend wont change. Physical lovers are caught in a changing world of time, but they are stabilized by spiritual love, which exists in a constant world of eternal ideals. The sonnet uses imagery like this create a more clear concept of love in the speaker's mind. Quatrain two embarks on a series of seafaring metaphors to further establish the permanence of true love: in line 5 it is an "ever-fixed mark," a sea mark that navigators could use to guide their course; in line 7 it is a steadfast star (the North Star, perhaps), whose height we are able to measure (as with a quadrant). Both of these metaphors emphasize the constancy and dependability of true love. Lines five to eight stand in contrast to their adjacent quatrains, and they have their special importance by saying what love is rather than what it is not.

3rd Quatrain In the third quatrain Shakespeare speaks about the time transcending aspect of true love in the expression Loves not Times fool. Here time is personified. During Shakespeares time the word fool meant doll. Love is not a playing on the hand of time. Things and beings grow and decay with the passage of time. Time is imagined as an old man carrying a sickle in the hand. He cuts and kills everything in his range. Time destroys. Aspect of youthful charm like rosy lips and cheeks are subject to the ravages of time. Physical charm is transient. Lust, based on physical charm is transitorytempory.True love, on the contrary, is above and beyond the reach of time. It is immune from the ravages of time. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks. The recurrence of the word alters in this line links it with line three which alters when it alteration finds. With such organic structure the poem is a splendid piece or art.

True love has the ability to endure. True love bears it out even to the edge of doom. Dooms Day or the Day of Judgement is a biblical belief. One does not know when it would come and whether it would come at all. The dooms day will see the end of life and the universe. True love would endure, would live till that time. The implication is that true love is everlasting. The poets love for his friend does not change during his friends life on earth. Love lasts in the afterlife. It is eternal and outlives even death. Quatrain three nails home the theme, with love's undying essence prevailing against the "bending sickle" of Time. Time's "hours and weeks" are "brief" compared to love's longevity, and only some great and final destruction of apocalyptic proportions could spell its doom. Note here the reference back to the nautical imagery of quatrain two with the use of the word "compass" in line 10. Edge of doom- Doomsday. Compass- range.

Couplet Sonnet 116 closes with a rather hefty wager against the validity of the poet's words: he writes that if what he claims above is proven untrue, then he "never writ, nor no man ever loved. The poet challenges people to prove him wrong. The statement made in the couplet at the end of the poem makes it apparent that the poets analysis of the nature of true love is not solely based on his personal experience of feeling. If what he has said about true love be proved wrong, no man ever loved. He never wrote. No doubt the poets views about true love are what have been often stated and written about. Paraphrasing the couplet: If the above is false and proved against me, it would be as impossible as if I had never written anything, or if nobody had ever loved.

Figures of speech:

Synecdoche: Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing. Examples: 40 sails: 40 ships, The crown-the king. Imagery: Use of an object that is not really there, in order to create a comparison between one that is, usually evoking a more meaningful visual experience for the reader. Personification: Giving human traits to non living objects.