Sonnet 116 By William Shakespeare

1564-1616
What are the ideal characteristics
of a loving relationship?

•In this poem, Shakespeare

gives us his idea of the
characteristics of a really
lasting love between two
people.
 SONNET 116
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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
The sonnet starts with a negative True =
wish ‘let me not’ unchanging,
faithful, truthful
Accept; Let me not to the marriage of true minds
agree that Admit impediments.
there are

: This is reminiscent of the

marriage ceremony: “If any of
you know cause of just
impediment why these two
persons should not be conjoined What is the poet saying here?
together in holy matrimony…”
What kind of love is suggested by the first
Notice how the enjambment line? (: This is often interpreted as ‘true love’
keeps the ‘impediment’ and the – do you agree?)
‘marriage of true minds’
separated.

How does this metaphor add to

the idea of love presented
here?
 Another negative.
[The use of Love is being
the word defined by what it
‘alter’ Love is not love is not.
reinforces Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
the earlier To make oneself
metaphor of different-
marriage] contrary to
One who moves or
changes ‘unmoving’ or
unchangeable

What is the poet saying here?

How is love being defined? What qualities

does it have?

What is the effect of the poet’s use of

repetition?
 A shift in tone: love is
: a ‘sea mark’ in
Elizabethan times was a
nautical image – a
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,  lighthouse or spire of a
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; coastal church; an ‘ever-
fixed’ mark for the ships
to navigate by.

Because of their height,

the sea-marks would
‘look [down] on’ the
What is the poet saying here? storm below; their
solidity and height
How is love being defined? What qualities meant the storm would
does it have? have no effect on them.

What is the effect of the poet’s shift from How does this
what love is not to what love is? metaphor add to the
idea of love described?
How does the poem mark this shift?
 Bark = ship

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

: Ships in Elizabethan times

would navigate by the stars,
particularly the unmoving North
What is the poet saying here? Star or Polaris.

What is the effect of using ‘the star’ rather
than ‘a star’?
What might be implied about the bark by the
adjective ‘wandering’?
At the time, it was not known
what stars were made of (‘whose
worth unknown’) although an
angle of elevation above the
horizon could be measured (‘his
height be taken’). This
measurement helped sailors
measure the ship’s latitude.

What does this metaphor add to

the idea of love represented?
 AO3: Elizabethans would recognise a
reference to the ‘fool’ of the King; a court
A return to what love is not
jester whose wit livened up the day but
whose position was precarious at best.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 

Within his bending sickle's compass come; 
Alliteration echoes the
sound of the clock
ticking (time passing)
Time (along with Love) is personified, and the image in the poem links him
closely with the Grim Reaper and his sickle (or scythe). Here, he is reaping
youth (‘rosy lips and cheeks’). He is also pictured, as convention dictates,
with a time-piece or compass- this could refer to the arc of the circle
created by his scythe, or it could be an extension of the nautical metaphor
of the previous lines.

What is the effect of the inclusion of Time here?

What is the poet saying here?

What is the effect of these images? What do they add to the idea of love
presented by the poet?
 ‘His’ refers to Time – this is an extension of the
A repetition of the idea that metaphor introduced in the previous lines
love ‘alters not’

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Endures; continues faithfully : ‘edge of doom’ is a reference to

Doomsday, or the end of the world and
time itself. It could also be a reference to
an individual’s day of death.

What is the poet saying here? Which do you find the most likely here?

What is the effect of the repetition of the idea that love ‘alters not’?

Why is it significant that Time’s hours and weeks are ‘brief’? How do they
compare to Love?

What does the word ‘But’ mark a return to? Why has the poet chosen to do this
here, at the end of the final quatrain?
 If evidence can be provided that I
am wrong in these ideas…
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

What is the poet saying here?

What is the effect of the shift from love to the poet himself: what he
has said about love?

Can he be proved wrong? How does the last line add to the challenge
of this?

Why has he ended the poem this way?

Marriage
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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

Is this a traditional or typical image of marriage?

Marriage is a formal contract and, in Shakespeare’s time, it was far from a contract
between equals. Women were more or less surrendered into the control of their husbands
when they got married. Was this a marriage of true minds? Is Shakespeare using a more
idealistic, transcendent vision of marriage?
Other images?

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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

What other images of love are in the sonnet?

 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:
Can you identify O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, 
the rhyme That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
scheme? 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. 
Let me not to the marriage of true minds A
Admit impediments. Love is not love B
Which alters when it alteration finds, A
Or bends with the remover to remove: B
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,  C
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; D
It is the star to every wandering bark, C
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. D
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks  E
Within his bending sickle's compass come;  F
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,  E
But bears it out even to the edge of doom. F
If this be error and upon me proved, G
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.  G
Shakespeare’s sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains, and a final
couplet composed in iambic pentameter. Sonnet 116 follows this structure and
this meter.

The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Often, the beginning of the third quatrain
marks the volta ("turn"), or the line in which the mood of the poem shifts, and
the poet expresses a revelation or epiphany.

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.
The structure and Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
form of this Within his bending sickle's compass come; 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
sonnet are But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
entirely standard. If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.