Sonnet 116 Flashcards
how many sonnets did Shakespeare write?
154
what kind of poem is this? What’s its structure?
A Shakespearean sonnet- ABAB rhyme (3 sets) with a trochee at the end of each of the three quatrane
Couplet in the last two lines
Iambic pentameter, regular simplicity of true love
what is the poem about?
it asks what is true love?
Shakespeare gives three things which makes true love in the quatranes.
An alternative reading is that he was going to marry someone but was left at the altar, they had fallen out of love for him, and he is reminiscing and longing for a love which he describes.
It is a simple poem to show how love shouldn’t be overcomplicated
what can be said about the first quatrane?
its point is that it is not true love if you have to change yourself or the other person.
It has very fluid enjambment to show the fluidity of love, also how allusive and easily it can slip from you
Envelope rhyme
There are frequent marraige references ‘marriage, impediments, alter’ refers to the alternate meaning of the poem
‘Let me not to the marraige of true mindes admit impediments,’
-‘Let me not’ is a strange start to a love sonnet. Love is difficult, and the speaker knows more about rejection and the faults of love, then the absolutes and facts about it
- caesura at the end, he has a methodical answer and reasoning which he is going to list
‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finders, or bends with the remover to remove.’
-Euphony, audibly appealing and gentle. Beauty of love
-two pairs of words which visually fit together ‘alter, alteration’. Fitting together, but also changing yourself slightly to fit the other - how the speakers marraige failed?
- altar is an alternative meaning - dedication
What is the second quatrane about?
Meaning is - if its true love, it is fixed and rooted
The speaker has a one sided, fixed attraction to his ex, that is never going to change
‘O no, it is an ever fixed marke that lookes on tempests and is never shaken;’
-fixed marke refers to stars, you can look on the same star wherever you are (the star can’t see you back, one sided love)
- caesura to dwell on the impactful image
‘Whose worths unknowns, although his height be taken.’
-you can’t measure the depth of love, you can measure the length but not the impact of sincerity
What’s the third quatrane about?
Time doesn’t change love, no matter how long ago the relationship was, the speaker still loves her the same
Even though we physically show signs of change, love always remains the same
‘Lov’s not Times foole, though Rosie lips and cheeks within his bending sickles compasses come,
Love alters not with his breeze houres and weekes, but beared it out even to the edge of doome:’
-‘not times foole’ shows that time is in control but it can’t be in charge of true love
- ‘sickles compasses come’ is harsh alliteration to signify the evil sinister nature of time and death when he comes. There are softer sounds of b and w to show how the kindness and love prevails. Romanticises idea of death and time.
-reference to altar again, even after all this time, his love for his ex hasn’t changed, more sinister interpretation
