SONNET 116
By
Introduction
A Sonnet is a short poem of 14 lines. The term ‘sonnet’ is derived from the Italian word sonetto’ which means “little sound”. It has its origin in Italy and it was perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch. Later Shakespeare modified the Petrarchan sonnet form into English sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet is made up of three decasyllabic quatrains rhyming alternatively followed by a concluding couplet. It has the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. They were published together in 1609. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to an unnamed young nobleman with whom the poet is helplessly emotionally bound. The final sonnets are addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates and lusts for simultaneously. The young nobleman is referred to as ‘Mr. W.H’ and the mysterious woman is referred to as the ‘dark lady’.
In this sonnet Shakespeare glorifies ideal and eternal love which stands with the ravages of Time. The predominant themes of this sonnet is true love which is constant and permanent.
Theme
1. Love
2. Loyalty
3. Time
4. Immortality
5. Permanent and constant
6. Relationship
Quatrain 1 says:
The poet is talking of the marriage of true minds. The first two lines draw us to the Christian marriage service and its accompanying ceremonies. Love is not love if it changes under changed circumstances. Love is not true if it agrees with the one who wants to dissolve the lover’s union.
Quatrain 2
Love is an ever fixed mark, a light house which looks on tempests but is never shaken.True love is like the pole star which guides every passing ship. Its value is unknown though its height be calculated.
Quatrain 3
True love is not Time’s fool. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks which are indicative of youth and physical beauty. Time is personified as a reaper carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions. But true love is constant and it never alters with the passage of time. It can surmount all the obstacles. True love lasts till the end of the world.Nothing can destroy true love.
Final couplet
The poet justifies and reaffirms his statement that true love is constant and permanent. If any one proves this statement to be false, then the poet says that he had never written anything and no man ever experienced true love.
1. What are the different aspects of love that the poet discusses in the sonnet?
The poet distinguishes between true love and unfaithful love. Love is not love which alters under changed circumstances. True love is constant and permanent which never alters with the passage of time. Nothing can destroy it.
2. How will the mutual transfer of the lines5 and 7 affect the appreciation of the poem?
The mutual transfer of the lines5 and 7 does not make any difference in the appreciation of the poem. The lighthouse, an ever fixed mark is replaced by the pole star which guides every passing ship in the ocean. Both the light house and the pole star refer to the permanence of true love.
3. How many syllables are there in each line? How many words contain more than two syllables?
There are ten syllables in each line. Words like ‘impediments’, ‘alter ‘wandering’ contain more than two syllables.
4. Majority of the words (more than 75 per9cent) in the sonnet are monosyllabic. Do they produce any special effect?
The use of monosyllabic words in each line gives a special tone and rhythm to the poem.
5. Did you closely examine the content words? Are they simple and familiar?
The content words like love, time, ever-fixed mark, star are simple and familiar.
6. Spot instances of Alliteration, personification, internal rhyme.
Alliteration : It is a series of words in a row have the same first consonant sounds.
a) Love is not Love
b) alters when it alteration
c) remover to remove
Personification: When a thing or an animal is given human qualities or attributes. To act like a human.
Time is personified as a man carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions.
Internal rhyme: It is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines.
a) Which alters when it alteration finds. b) Bends with the remover to remove
7. What is t The he rhyme scheme of the sonnet ?
Rhyme scheme of this sonnet is abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Paragraph question:
1.Write a note on the theme of the poem.
Love is the predominant theme of sonnet 116.The poet describes true love as constant and permanent. True love never alters under any changed circumstances. It never changes even when one of the lovers become unfaithful to the other. The poet makes use of two metaphors to bring out the nature of true love. True love is an ever fixed mark, that looks on tempests but is never shaken. It is the pole star that guides every wandering ship. Love is not subject to the ravages of time. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks which is indicative of youth and beauty. But true love never changes with the passage of time. It can surmount all the obstacles and it lasts till the end of the world.
Essay:
Write a critical appreciation of the poem sonnet 116.
Shakespeare has written 154 sonnets and they all deal with the theme of love, time, beauty, friendship and mortality. Sonnet 116 is one of the most widely read poems among them. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man with whom the speaker of poem is emotionally bound. The rest of the sonnets are addressed to ‘the dark lady’.
The Love is the most prominent theme of sonnet 116. The poet glorifies the meaning of true love which can surpass all the obstacles and thus remains unchanged even with the passage of time. The poet begins this sonnet with a reference to the Christian marriage service and its accompanying ceremonies. He talks of the union of true minds. The poet makes a distinction between true love and unfaithful love. According to him, love is not love which alters under changed circumstances. True love never changes even when one of the lovers becomes unfaithful to the other.
In the next quatrain Shakespeare makes use of two metaphors to bring out the permanence of true love. First, the poet says that love is an ever fixed mark that looks upon tempests but is never shaken. Next he says that love is the pole star which guides every wandering ship in the ocean. Its value is unknown though its height be calculated. In the third quatrain, the poet brings out the ravages of time. Time is personified as a reaper carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks but true love does not depend on physical beauty True love will remain unchanged even with the passage of time. It will remain the same till the end of the world. It is constant and permanent and nothing can change it. The last two lines reaffirm the poet’s statement that true love is constant and permanent. If this statement is proved wrong by any one, then the poet says that he had never written any poems and no man ever experienced true love.
2. Shakespeare’s veiw about true love
Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defense true love. The sonnet has a relatively simple structure, with each quatrain attempting to describe what love is (or is not) and the final couplet reaffirming the poet's words by placing his own merit on the line. Note that this is one of the few sonnets in the fair lord sequence that is not addressed directly to the fair lord; the context of the sonnet, however, gives it away as an exposition of the poet's deep and enduring love for him.
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 ..." This first quatrain asserts that true love is immortal and unchanging: it neither changes on its own nor allows itself to be changed, even when it encounters changes in the loved one. 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) although we may know nothing of its nature (the science of stars had hardly progressed by Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defense of true love.
By
William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh no! it is an ever fixed mark
Oh no! it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
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.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Introduction
A Sonnet is a short poem of 14 lines. The term ‘sonnet’ is derived from the Italian word sonetto’ which means “little sound”. It has its origin in Italy and it was perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch. Later Shakespeare modified the Petrarchan sonnet form into English sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet is made up of three decasyllabic quatrains rhyming alternatively followed by a concluding couplet. It has the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. They were published together in 1609. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to an unnamed young nobleman with whom the poet is helplessly emotionally bound. The final sonnets are addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the speaker loves, hates and lusts for simultaneously. The young nobleman is referred to as ‘Mr. W.H’ and the mysterious woman is referred to as the ‘dark lady’.
In this sonnet Shakespeare glorifies ideal and eternal love which stands with the ravages of Time. The predominant themes of this sonnet is true love which is constant and permanent.
Theme
1. Love
2. Loyalty
3. Time
4. Immortality
5. Permanent and constant
6. Relationship
Quatrain 1 says:
The poet is talking of the marriage of true minds. The first two lines draw us to the Christian marriage service and its accompanying ceremonies. Love is not love if it changes under changed circumstances. Love is not true if it agrees with the one who wants to dissolve the lover’s union.
Quatrain 2
Love is an ever fixed mark, a light house which looks on tempests but is never shaken.True love is like the pole star which guides every passing ship. Its value is unknown though its height be calculated.
Quatrain 3
True love is not Time’s fool. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks which are indicative of youth and physical beauty. Time is personified as a reaper carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions. But true love is constant and it never alters with the passage of time. It can surmount all the obstacles. True love lasts till the end of the world.Nothing can destroy true love.
Final couplet
The poet justifies and reaffirms his statement that true love is constant and permanent. If any one proves this statement to be false, then the poet says that he had never written anything and no man ever experienced true love.
1. What are the different aspects of love that the poet discusses in the sonnet?
The poet distinguishes between true love and unfaithful love. Love is not love which alters under changed circumstances. True love is constant and permanent which never alters with the passage of time. Nothing can destroy it.
2. How will the mutual transfer of the lines5 and 7 affect the appreciation of the poem?
The mutual transfer of the lines5 and 7 does not make any difference in the appreciation of the poem. The lighthouse, an ever fixed mark is replaced by the pole star which guides every passing ship in the ocean. Both the light house and the pole star refer to the permanence of true love.
3. How many syllables are there in each line? How many words contain more than two syllables?
There are ten syllables in each line. Words like ‘impediments’, ‘alter ‘wandering’ contain more than two syllables.
4. Majority of the words (more than 75 per9cent) in the sonnet are monosyllabic. Do they produce any special effect?
The use of monosyllabic words in each line gives a special tone and rhythm to the poem.
5. Did you closely examine the content words? Are they simple and familiar?
The content words like love, time, ever-fixed mark, star are simple and familiar.
6. Spot instances of Alliteration, personification, internal rhyme.
Alliteration : It is a series of words in a row have the same first consonant sounds.
a) Love is not Love
b) alters when it alteration
c) remover to remove
Personification: When a thing or an animal is given human qualities or attributes. To act like a human.
Time is personified as a man carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions.
Internal rhyme: It is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines.
a) Which alters when it alteration finds. b) Bends with the remover to remove
7. What is t The he rhyme scheme of the sonnet ?
Rhyme scheme of this sonnet is abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Paragraph question:
1.Write a note on the theme of the poem.
Love is the predominant theme of sonnet 116.The poet describes true love as constant and permanent. True love never alters under any changed circumstances. It never changes even when one of the lovers become unfaithful to the other. The poet makes use of two metaphors to bring out the nature of true love. True love is an ever fixed mark, that looks on tempests but is never shaken. It is the pole star that guides every wandering ship. Love is not subject to the ravages of time. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks which is indicative of youth and beauty. But true love never changes with the passage of time. It can surmount all the obstacles and it lasts till the end of the world.
Essay:
Write a critical appreciation of the poem sonnet 116.
Shakespeare has written 154 sonnets and they all deal with the theme of love, time, beauty, friendship and mortality. Sonnet 116 is one of the most widely read poems among them. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man with whom the speaker of poem is emotionally bound. The rest of the sonnets are addressed to ‘the dark lady’.
The Love is the most prominent theme of sonnet 116. The poet glorifies the meaning of true love which can surpass all the obstacles and thus remains unchanged even with the passage of time. The poet begins this sonnet with a reference to the Christian marriage service and its accompanying ceremonies. He talks of the union of true minds. The poet makes a distinction between true love and unfaithful love. According to him, love is not love which alters under changed circumstances. True love never changes even when one of the lovers becomes unfaithful to the other.
In the next quatrain Shakespeare makes use of two metaphors to bring out the permanence of true love. First, the poet says that love is an ever fixed mark that looks upon tempests but is never shaken. Next he says that love is the pole star which guides every wandering ship in the ocean. Its value is unknown though its height be calculated. In the third quatrain, the poet brings out the ravages of time. Time is personified as a reaper carrying a sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks and possessions. Time can destroy the rosy lips and cheeks but true love does not depend on physical beauty True love will remain unchanged even with the passage of time. It will remain the same till the end of the world. It is constant and permanent and nothing can change it. The last two lines reaffirm the poet’s statement that true love is constant and permanent. If this statement is proved wrong by any one, then the poet says that he had never written any poems and no man ever experienced true love.
2. Shakespeare’s veiw about true love
Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defense true love. The sonnet has a relatively simple structure, with each quatrain attempting to describe what love is (or is not) and the final couplet reaffirming the poet's words by placing his own merit on the line. Note that this is one of the few sonnets in the fair lord sequence that is not addressed directly to the fair lord; the context of the sonnet, however, gives it away as an exposition of the poet's deep and enduring love for him.
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 ..." This first quatrain asserts that true love is immortal and unchanging: it neither changes on its own nor allows itself to be changed, even when it encounters changes in the loved one. 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) although we may know nothing of its nature (the science of stars had hardly progressed by Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous of the sonnets for its stalwart defense of true love.
The sonnet has a relatively simple structure, with each quatrain attempting to describe what love is (or is not) and the final couplet reaffirming the poet's words by placing his own merit on the line. Note that this is one of the few sonnets in the fair lord sequence that is not addressed directly to the fair lord; the context of the sonnet, however, gives it away as an exposition of the poet's deep and enduring love for him.
Finally, 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.
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."In comparison with most other sonnets, sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. 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.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.
In comparison with most other sonnets, sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. 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.
Finally, 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.
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."In comparison with most other sonnets, sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. 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.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.
In comparison with most other sonnets, sonnet 116 strikes readers as relatively simple. 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.
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