Sonnet 116

Key Themes

• True Love: The poem celebrates the steadfastness of true love.

  • Emphasizes that true love does not change or diminish under external circumstances.

• Immutability of Love: Love remains constant and unaffected by the passage of time or external challenges.

Line by Line Analysis

• Lines 1-2:

  • "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"

    • Introduces the idea of love between compatible souls, suggesting that it should be free of obstacles.

  • "Admit impediments."

    • Impediments refer to obstacles or challenges that might affect love.

• Lines 3-4:

  • "Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds,"

    • True love does not change when situations change.

  • "Or bends with the remover to remove."

    • Love does not falter or disappear when faced with challenges.

• Lines 5-6:

  • "O no! it is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken;"

    • Compares love to a fixed point; unwavering despite turmoil (tempests).

• Lines 7-8:

  • "It is the star to every wand'ring bark,"

    • Love is likened to a guiding star for lost ships, indispensable and reliable.

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

    • The true value of love is immeasurable; even though it can be observed, its depth is beyond measure.

• Lines 9-12:

  • "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle's compass come;"

    • Love is not subject to time (Time, personified as a reaper).

  • "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom."

    • True love endures beyond time, proving its strength until the end of life.

• Lines 13-14:

  • "If this be error and upon me prov'd, / I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd."

    • The speaker affirms absolute confidence in his definition of love; challenges the listener to disprove his assertion about love's constancy.