Sonnet 116 Flashcards
Who wrote this poem
William Shakespeare
What figure of speech can be found in the sentence
‘sickle compass come’ and the meaning
consonance of the hard plosive k. Associates personified time with death and enables the reader to hear the cutting action of the sickle
How is ideal love and time presented in the poem
ideal love is able to transcend the limitations of both time and death. Time is presented as capable of cutting short the beauty of youth but true love survives this.
What form is the poem written in? and describe it
Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet
What is the meter used in the poem?
Iambic pentameter
What is the rhyme scheme for
abab cdcd efef gg
What are the key themes explored in this poem
- Ideal love
- Love and time/ enduring love
What quotations are similar in the great Gatsby and in this poem
‘It is the star to every wandering barke’
‘I… distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away’ Chapter 1
‘Lov’s not time’s fool’
‘Can’t repeat the past? why, of course you can’ chapter 6
marke, star and barke are semantic fields of what?
Sailing
Marriage, rosy lips and cheeks are semantic fields of what?
love
What is the significance of the use of enjambement in lines 1 and 2
separates admit impediments from the marriage of true minds showing that the former can have nothing to do with the latter
What is the significance of the use of caesura after impediments e.g ‘impediments, love is not love’
renders the point more forceful at the same time gives a sense of how those impediments would if admitted, abruptly terminate the flow of love
What is the significance of the couplet at the end of the poem
- puts his reputation as a writer on the line to demonstrate the strength of his conviction
- The couplet is divorced from the main content of the three quatrains so it renders the argument too abstract to be applicable to everyday reality
What time period was the poem written
Late 16th Century
What are the similarities and differences between Sonnet 116 and La belle dame sans Merci
Similarities
• Love inalterable
Differences
• Keats creates a story while Shakespeare has a short sonnet
• La belle contains distress while sonnet 116 is perfect
• Sonnet 116 presents love as spiritual while la belle presents love as erotically
• The knight in la belle is infatuated while Shakespeare describes perfect love and not infatuation
What figure of speech is used in the following sentence and what is its significance.
“Times fool”
• Personification
• Shows that love is impersonal or a trans personal entity that is present in humans but a force that outlives them
What are the similarities and differences between sonnet 116 and Ae fond kids
Similarities
• Represents true and pure love
• Societal barriers and limitations to love
• Idealised love
• “ star of hope”- AFK, “star to every wandering bark”- sonnet 116
Differences
• Burns is saying goodbye while Shakespeare believes goodby doesn’t exist as true love lives on
• Sonnet 116 is a general reflection on love whereas AFK is a particular account of a love affair
How does Shakespeare critique the institution of marriage?
- The sonnet invokes the sacrament/ institution of marriage, love is the marriage or union of two minds, their compatibility is what matters whether it is enshrined in the law.
What does the clear and calm tones at the beginning of the poem reflect?
Reflects the unchanging nature of the poem
What is the significance of the irregularity of the meter in the poem?
Irregularity of the meter in the first lines is illustrative of how love itself has some rocky parts but smooths out and conforms clearly to the sonnet form
