Words: 655
This poem follows the conventional structure and includes the usual ‘turn’ at the end – a pair of lines (or couplet) that either shifts the mood or meaning of the poem, or asserts some sort of revelation. This sonnet, like all of the other sonnets, and like Shakespearean plays, is written in iambic pentameter. Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme can be described as a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. This predictability and use of a regular pattern is frequently found in older poetry as writers tended to stick to the restrictions of a set format. Meaning: Overall Meaning: Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form.
The poet praises the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet’s pleasure in love that is constant and strong and will not “alter when it alteration finds. ” The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an “ever-fixed mark” which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love’s actual worth cannot be known – it remains a mystery.
The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect tauter of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so “even to the edge of doom”, or death. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes. How the poem relates to life in general, and/or my The poem is a philosophical question of how love deceives both eye and mind and judgment.
It tells that true love always perseveres, despite any obstacles hat may arise. It defines love by what it doesn’t 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. Love is not restricted by time or place, but exists above all considerations. Love grows where there are faithfulness, forgiveness, and equality in any loving relationship. Mortality isn’t an issue for true love, which doesn’t fade even when youth and beauty disappear.
We do not love the person because of how he/she looks, or what he/she possesses. Love doesn’t change as the days go by; rather, it remains strong until the lover’s dying day. Figurative Language and Poetic Techniques: Device/Technique Quote(s) Meaning/Significance Metaphor; Personification That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, The “tempests” that threaten the seas is a metaphor for the challenges that may plague a relationship, like arguments or infidelity, while in line 7, the “wandering bark” is a metaphor for the lover, being led through the tumultuous sea of life by love.
The word “wandering” also personifies this lost hip, giving us the feeling that it’s looking for something. Alliteration Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: These lines have repetitions of pairs of words which add to the artistic tone of the sonnet. There are some opposites and negatives used to stress the qualities of love by saying what it is not. Hyperbole But bears it out even to the edge of doom. These lines are using language associated with extremes to show the power of love, confirming love as a positive force that triumphs over the prospect of “doom”.