Sonnet 116 Analysis
William Shakespeare makes the point of the poem clear from the first line which gives a message about the perseverance of true love despite of challenges that may come. He continues to give a definition of what love cannot do, saying that it does not change even if people and events do. There is no end to love even if someone tries to kill it. Instead of being something that is only passing, love is forever and constant. The author compares love to the North Star that does not move and the lost ships use it to guide them home. There is a mystery to this metaphorical star and maybe it is incomprehensible, even if the location can be found.
Sonnet 116’s description of love is quoted a lot of times because it speaks of romantic love that is beyond death and flawless. The sonnet also insists that it is the only form of love that can be called pure. The author says that if love changes, dies, or fleeting, then it does not exist. The fundamental decision of what the poem argues into different parts of the sonnet form is very easy. The first four lines say that love is unchangeable, the next four lines that it is a guiding star that tempests cannot shake, and the last four lines is about being love fooled by time. The couplet is about the certainty of the speaker. The rhetorical and emotional power is not about difficulty, instead it is about the linguistic and emotional state.
The poem says that love’s arrival is not based on time and mortality is not a hindrance for real love that does not fade even if youth and beauty are gone. There is no change in the form of love as time passes because it remains firm until the lover’s death. This is the main theme that goes together with the undying essence of love that is prevailed against the cruelty of time.
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The last part of the Sonnet ends with a profound wager against the poet’s words validity. Compared to other sonnets, Sonnet 116 has a simple impact on the readers. The use of metaphors are clear and the theme is realistic. The painful memory of love being timeless and unstoppable nature is discussed in the first eight lines. The author only continued the theme in the third quatrain. Even if the last part only has a simple statement, it is significant and the objective of the author was untouched by candor and conviction. It is not surprising that Sonnet 116 is a description of how Shakespeare really defined love.
In the final words of the sonnet, the poet endangers his own image and belief, openly claiming that if there is a person who will be able to say otherwise, he will take his words back. This is if the idea of love becomes wrong, then he will take back everything he wrote and it will seem like this piece of writing never came into existence. In addition to this, if this explanation of love is proved to be false, then the poet considers that no one has ever experienced or given love.
The author’s strong conviction of pure love is still being applied today by those who want to love purely and eternally. This kind of love is not found anywhere and if a person comes across love as pure as this, he or she must not let go. The message of the sonnet resonates with a lot of people who are longing to be loved in return without hesitation, hindrances, and having the pain of letting go.
