Sonnet 116

by William Shakespeare

Group members :
Ramlah Binti Mahmud
Farah Syahirah Binti Jumaan
Nur Atiqah Liyana Binti Ahmad
Tarmizi

Outline

Poem
Paraphrase
Summary
Themes
Tone
Literary devices

Let menot to themarriageof 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 neverwrit, nor no man ever loved.

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true
minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love

PARAPHRASE
Let me not declare any reasons why
two
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
That sees storms but it never shaken;
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 Whose value cannot be calculated,
height be taken.
although its altitude can be measured.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips Love is not at the mercy of Time,
and cheeks
though physical beauty
Within his bending sickle's compass
Comes within the compass of his
come:
sickle.
Love alters not with his brief hours and Love does not alter with hours and
weeks,
weeks,

Summary
The poet makes his point clear from line 1 that is true love always
perseveres, despite any obstacles that may arise. He goes on to
define love by what it doesnt do, claiming that it stays constant,
even though people and circumstances may change. Love never
dies, even when someone tries to destroy it. Rather than being
something that comes and goes, love is eternal and unchanging
so much so that the poet compares it to the North Star, which never
moves in the sky and guides lost ships home. This is because, this
metaphorical star is mysterious and perhaps incomprehensible,
even though we can chart its location.Besides that, love isnt at the
beck and call of time because mortality isnt an issue for true love,
which doesnt fade even when youth and beauty disappear. Love
doesnt change as the days go by and it remains strong until the
lovers dying or, till doomsday.Finally, the poet stakes his own
reputation on this definition, boldly claiming that if anyone can
prove him wrong, hell eat his words. That is to say, if his idea of
love turns out to be wrong, then hell take back everything he wrote
and itll be as though it never existed and if this specific portrayal of
love is somehow proved to be wrong, then according to the poet,
nobody has ever loved at all.

THEMES

Love
Love here is seen as a truly powerful, unstoppable force of
nature. Its the only constant thing in this confusing world,
and its a guiding star for all of us who are lost out there as
being stated in line 7, It is the star to every wandering
bark.
In line 11, Love alters not with his brief hours and
weeks which the speaker again describes what love is not:
it is not susceptible to time.
Time has no control over love.Time is a great destroyer.It can
destroy everything in nature.It changes beauty and youth
into ugliness and sickness.However time is powerless before
love.Love does not grow old and decay.

Mortality
In line 1 and 2, Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
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.
In this poem, Time is usually seen as a force
of destruction because eventually everyone
will grow old and die because we are mortal.
However, Time will not give any impacts on
love as being stated in line 12, But bears
it out even to the edge of doom until
the Judgement Day.

Loyalty
As being stated in the first quatrain,
Let menot to themarriageof true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove
it is stated that through marker of love is its persistence
without constant devotion.
In line 2, Admit impediments. Love is not love tell us that
even though theres a lot of difficulties came when two
people love each other, but if their feelings are real none
of these things should matter.
This is because true lovers will always forgive each other
and stay together regardless of the circumstances.

Tone
The tone of this sonnet is romantic
and this is being reinforced from the
line 14 "I never writ, nor no man ever
loved." Through this line, the persona
is saying that if he wasn't right, then
no man has ever really loved a
woman.

Literary Devices

Alliteration
Although HIS HEIGHT be taken
Within his bending sickles
COMPASS COME
BUT BEARS it out even to the edge
of doom
I never writ, NOR NO man ever
loved.

Metaphor
Shakespeare compare love to a
lighthouse which we can see in line 5
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark. He
uses the metaphor to show how firm
his love is to his lover that stands still
no matter how difficult the
relationship is.

In line 7, Shakespeare uses the

metaphor to compare the star as love,
as it is being portrayed as a guidance.
Love acts as a guidance in every
relationship, just like a star, which acts
as a guide for sailors in the sea.

Symbol
Rosy lips and cheeks symbolizes a girl
whom one might be in love with
In this sonnet, the lover is not being
mentioned directly, however as we can
see in stanza 9, Rosy lips and cheeks
is symbolizing physical beauty. It is
suggesting that the persona is talking
about a lady, based on the
characteristics of rosy lips and cheeks
which are usually associated with
feminism.

Personification
Loves not Times fool, Line 9
This line explains the personification
of time and love to point out how
love is a thing that cannot be
accurately measured and can
withstand eternity.

Thank You