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=Sonnet 116 - Let me not ...=

by William Shakespeare


Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (Let me not...) was first published in 1609; it is regarded as one of his most romantic and most profound sonnets. Sonnet 116, popularly illustrates the idea that true love is unchanging. The poem as a whole represents romantic love as well as unconditional love. The poem presents topics such as the shift in situations, the loss of beauty due to old age and the abandonment of the other's admiration. The poet praises the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds." The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known – it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death.

Sonnets


Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart". }}

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Poem
SONNET 116 PARAPHRASE

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Let me not declare any reasons why two

Admit impediments. Love is not love True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds, Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,

Or bends with the remover to remove: Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark              Oh no! it is a lighthouse

That looks on tempests and is never shaken; That sees storms but it never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,           Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks   Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty

Within his bending sickle's compass come: Comes within the compass of his sickle.

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, Love does not alter with hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom. But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.

If this be error and upon me proved,  If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love

I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————