Sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"

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:
O, 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 prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

Summary of Sonnet 116

Sonnet 116 is the most perfect kind of love. It praises the glory of lovers who have
openly come to each other and enter into a relationship founded on honesty, trust and
understanding. The first four lines show the joy of the poet in love, which is steady and
heavy, and will not “alter when it alteration finds.” The following lines declare that true
love is indeed a “ever-fixed mark” that will endure any crisis. But this is not all the
definitions of love, in lines 7-8, the poet states that we might be able to quantify love to a
degree, but this does not mean that we truly comprehend it. Love’s true essence can
not be known — it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12)
reaffirm the perfect essence of love that is unshakeable across time and stays so “ev’n
to the edge of doom” or death. In the final couplet, the poet announces that, if he is
confused for the constant, immovable essence of true love, he shall take back all his
writings on love, truth and faith.

Question and Answers (Essays Type)

Q. Write a critical appreciation of the poem sonnet 116.

Answer: Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, all dealing with the theme of love, time,
beauty, friendship and mortality. Sonnet 116 is one of the most widely read poems. The
first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, with whom the poem speaker is
emotionally bound. The rest of the sonnets are addressed to the “Dark Lady.” Love is
the most important theme of sonnet 116. The poet glorifies the meaning of true love,
which can overcome all obstacles and thus remain unchanged even in the course of
time.

This sonnet starts with the reference to the Christian marriage service and its
accompanying ceremonies. He ‘s talking about the union of true minds. The poet makes
the distinction between true love and unfaithful love. According to him, love is not a love
that alters under changed circumstances. True love never changes, except though one
of the lovers becomes unfaithful to another.

In the next quatrain, Shakespeare uses two metaphors to bring out the permanence of
true love. First, the poet says that love is an ever-fixed mark, a lighthouse that looks like
storms but never shakes. Next, he says that love is the pole star that guides every
wandering ship in the ocean. Its value is unknown when its height is calculated.

In the third quatrain, the poet reveals the ravages of time. Time being personified as a
reaper who carries the sickle with which he cuts man’s life, looks, and possessions.
Time will ruin the pink lips and the cheeks, but true love does not depend on physical
beauty.

True love will remain unchanged, even in time. Until the end of the world, it will remain
the same. It’s constant and permanent, and nothing will change it. The last two lines
reaffirm the poet ‘s assertion that true love is constant and permanent. If someone
proves that this assertion is false, then the poet claims he never wrote any poetry, and
no man has ever known true love.

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Paragraph question

1. Write a note on the theme of the poem.

Answer: 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, a lighthouse 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 time. It can surmount all the obstacles and it lasts till the end of the
world.

Questions and Answers ( Short Answer Type)

1. What are the different aspects of love that the poet discusses in the sonnet?

Answer: 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 time. Nothing can destroy it.

Sonnet 130: "My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun"

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Commentary

The speaker in Shakespeare sonnet 130 is playing against the Petrarchan tradition of
placing the lady friend upon a pedestal to demonstrate affection.

First Quatrain: Her Features are Not Like Sun, Coral, Snow, or Silk

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

The speaker begins by describing his lady friend's eyes. They are not at all "like the
sun." That is all he has to say about those orbs, even though much exaggeration in
earlier poetry has taken place in describing the eyes of the beloved. But this speaker
quickly moves on to her lips, which are again described in the negative: while those lips
are red, they are not as red as "coral."
Moving on to the woman's bustline, he finds her competing in the negative against
"snow." While snow may actually be white, this lady's breasts are a shade of brown, as
most human skin comes in varying shades from light to dark brown. The lady's hair
suffers the worst comparison. Lovers like to attribute hair as strands of silk, but this
speaker has to admit that her hair is just like "black wires," and he offers the humorous
image of black wires growing out off her scalp.

Second Quatrain: Her Cheeks Have no Roses, Her Breath not Like Perfume

I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

The speaker next focuses on his lady's cheeks and breath. Her cheeks are not like any
rose he has experienced, especially the "red and white," or damasked rose. He has
seen those kinds of roses, and he does not see them in her cheeks.

The speaker has delighted in the smells of "some perfumes." He finds no such delightful
perfume smell exhaling with the breath of his lover. He employs the term "reek," which
may likely be misconstrued by contemporary readers because the term "reek" in the
Shakespearean era merely meant "to exhale" or "to exude." Currently, the term
describes an odor that is decidedly unpleasant.

Third Quatrain: No Music in Her Voice and She Walks on the Ground

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

In the final quatrain, the speaker does what he has failed to do in the first and second
quatrains. He admits that he loves to hear his lady friend talk, but he also has to admit
that even though he enjoys hearing her voice, he remains aware that her voice lacks the
more “pleasing sound” of music. Still, he seems to be making a more positive
comparison than with the earlier natural phenomena he employed.

While she sun, coral, snow, silk, roses, and perfume all seemed to shine more brilliantly
than the lady's features, in her voice he has found something about which to state flat
out that he "loves." Then again, he keeps his mistress treading on the earth, that is, she
does not walk about like some "goddess." And even though he cannot attest that a
goddess would walk any other way, he can say that his mistress "treads on the ground."
And with that assertion, the speaker summarizes his notion of keeping his tribute to his
lady down to earth, truthful in all aspects.

The Couplet: Truthful, Human Terms

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

The couplet finds the speaker swearing that his love for his mistress is as "rare" as the
love possessed by those who exaggerate their mistresses' beauty. He accuses those
speakers of lying when they compare the beauty of their ladies to natural phenomena
and claim that the lady's features outshine the sun, or that she has lips redder than
coral, or outrageously white body parts.

This speaker is convinced that such hyperbolic rhetoric in attempting to place the loved
one a pedestal simply remains at odds with the true comparisons, and ultimately
distracts from the focus on her true qualities. He likely would have preferred to be
addressing the positive features of the lady, but he found it necessary to refute the
notion of hyperbole before addressing other, more important issues.

The speaker is implying that he looks deeper for beauty. His affection for his friend is
based on her individuality as a human being. By describing his lady friend's qualities in
human terms, keeping his rhetoric down to earth, the speaker can still assert the rare
quality of genuine affection that he feels for her.

Questions:

1. Name and explain two things to which the poet compares his mistress.

2. Outline 2 features of a Shakespearean sonnet that you can identify.

3. How does Shakespeare’s poem differ from traditional love poems?

4. Identify and explain the volta in the poem.

5. Discuss whether you think the speaker’s love is sincere.