Sonnet 116 Flashcards
1
Q
Form
A
- Shakesperean Sonnet
- Regularity of rhyme scheme, metre and stanzaic structure represents the constancy of love
- The traditional form shows how love does not change with time
2
Q
Main themes
A
- Love
- Constancy
- Certainty
3
Q
Stanzaic structure
As in, what does each stanza describe
A
- First Stanza - What love should not be
- Second Stanza - What love should be
- Third Stanza - How love relates to the passing of time
- Fourth Stanza - Affirming his views
4
Q
‘Let me not’
A
- Anastrophe
- Places emphasis on ‘not’ - shows how important he feels not doing what he is about to describe is (which is being an impediment to true love)
5
Q
‘The marriage of true minds’
A
- Metaphor and synecdoche
- Shows how, as long as love is true, love is how Shakespeare will proceed to describe it
6
Q
‘Which alters when its alteration finds’ and ‘Or bends with the remover to remove’
A
- Polyptoton
- Places emphasis on how love should remain constant unlike those words, and if it doesn’t, ‘love is not love’
7
Q
‘O no’
A
- Ecphonesis
- Shows how important he believes what he is about to say is
8
Q
‘it is an ever fixed mark’
A
- Metaphor
- Compares love to an ever fixed mark which shows the permanence and constancy of love
9
Q
‘That looks on tempests and is never shaken’
A
- Metaphor comparing loves challenges to a violent storm
- Shows how these challenges are normal, but they should never change the nature of love, provided it is true love - love is enduring
10
Q
‘It is the star to every wandering bark’
A
- Extended maritime metaphor (continuing on from tempest)
- Shows how barks (lovers) should always be guided by the stars (love), especially when enduring tempests (loves challenges)
- Love is shown to be a guiding force in life
Barks is another word for sailors
11
Q
‘Whose worths unknown, although his height be taken’
A
The value of love and lovers cannot truly be known by just looking from the outside
12
Q
‘Love’s not Time’s fool’
A
- Personification of love and time
- Shows how love is not affected by time - it will always be superior and does not conform to the regular rules of time
13
Q
‘Though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks’
A
- Metaphor comparing a sickle (grim reaper) to ageing
- Shows how we will physichally change, but this will never affect love as it is always constant
- Despite the fact that our lives are short, true love will always prevail regardless of the passing of love (juxtaposition)
- ‘Alters not’ is anastrophe to emphasise the ‘not’
14
Q
‘I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d’
A
- Language of certainty
- Shows how strongly he believes in what he said
