STRUCTURE/FORM

• A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line

• Sonnet 116 makes use of an alternating rhyme scheme with a rhyming couplet to end

KEY QUOTATIONS

• “Let me not”, “I never writ nor no man ever loved”: use of negative

• “true minds”: refers to a faithful marriage

• “love is not love / Which… “: love is such a complex force that it can only be defined by what it is not

• “ever fixed mark”: refers to north star, cosmic imagery, oceanic imagery (used by sailors for navigation)

• “tempests”: a term for violent storms

• “It is the star”: cosmic imagery

• “Whose worth unknown”: personifies love, love is priceless

• “sickle’s compass come”: sickle means scythe, grim reaper, death, alliteration, reference to navigation

• “Time’s fool”, “hours and weeks”, “doom”: focus on time