Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds - William Shakespeare
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