Sonnet 116
I have been touched by many poems throughout my short time dabbling in poetry, but none so much as a beautiful sonnet sketched from the magical pen of William Shakespeare. I spent one non-eventful day surfing through his near 200 published sonnets, and I distinctly remember one catching my eye and touching me on a deeper level than any piece of writing I have ever perused. I'd like to do an analysis of the 14 lined poem - describing and explaining its words, phrases and ideas to help myself, as well as others grasp a better understanding of the beauty behind this poem. It is my personal belief that the content of this writing descriptively describes the essence of true love. It is a short but profound exploration into the idea that surrounds the term "love", using the Sonnet form and imagery to perfection in his quest to set the record straight.Let's first understand some of the structural requirements of a sonnet. Being that there are two forms of a sonnet, this one written by Shakespeare, it is obvious which form it takes. The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg - the "gg" being the couplet of the poem, and usually having a defining feature about it. This holds true in Sonnet 116, but that is to be
Easily the most powerful lines in the Sonnet. This couplet holds the power of the entire poem, and without it, Shakespeare would not have a masterpiece. The trick to the couplet is known as a "turn." The last two lines of a sonnet tend to differ from the entire content stated previous. In the first 12 lines of his piece, he gave an aw-inspiring description of how beautiful and how strong the true union of hearts really is. He believed so truly in love throughout the entire sonnet, exasperating how beautiful this union is, and now he is saying no man has loved? Not only that, but he has never written? He just wrote this whole sonnet didn't he? 3. O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; This is a very strong line. He is now not only saying true love won't bend or break, it is strong, and never wavering such as the North Star. The most notorious "ever-fixed mark" stands still as the most recognized star in a vast galaxy. Sticking with the theme of the North Star: being so high in the sky, a star can look down on everything (looks on tempests), oceans in particular. Because of its height, nothing that a star looks down on can ever affect it. The worst storms couldn't shake a star, the same with true love, nothing can affect something so pure and so strong. That's the trick: he believes so fully in what he wrote, he taunts us, makes us wonder if we can prove him wrong, and not but a second later, ironically - says we can't do it. We know that he writes, and he knows what love is. 7. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 1.(a) Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. An interesting introductory sentence, one that sets the tone for the poem to stress the idea of love, instead of lust. The term "true minds" suggests a union th
Some common words found in the essay are:
William Shakespeare, Love's Time's, North Star, Shakespeare's Sonnet, north star, true love, rosy lips cheeks, love doesn't, lips cheeks, wandering bark, rosy lips, true minds, love alters, marriage true minds, lines sonnet, edge doom,
Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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