Poetry Theme Analysis
“Sonnet 116”, William Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet, describes the trials true love faces, but also how no matter what, love is an ever present hope.
Love is constantly being tested through outside forces, and time’s unavoidable influence upon it. For love to work and be strong, the couple must “[a]dmit impediments” and flaws as time goes on, and problems occur (2). These impediments can be the breaking point for a couple, or they can grow in confidence through them. Love that “alters when alteration finds” will never have the strength to face life’s many obstacles together (3). These obstacle will include attempts to “[bend love] with the remover to remove”, through things such as families and distance (4). For example, love “[t]hat looks on tempests” will fall into the temptation of false love and promises (6). Along with people, time wants to fully influence love. As long as “Love’s not Time’s fool”, the love has a chance at survival (9). Time is an ever present clock that can usually wear down on a relationship. Even when love is “[w]ithin his bending sickle’s compass come”, the test don’t end (11). As long as love grows, there will always be challenges influencing it, from the moment it begins to the moment eternity starts.
To two people, love is an ever present hope for the rest of the world. It is “an ever-fixed mark” on the horizon and in the hearts, providing a feeling needed to make it through the challenges life throws at us (5). It is very much the light in the dark that people refer to during hard times. After a long day or week, love “is the star” that gets us through the mess things may feel like (7). That special feeling’s “worth’s unknown, though its height be taken” because no one else can ever be truly understand two people’s devotion for each other (8). Love also gives “rosy lips and cheeks” to the people it effects (9). Love shows life in one of its purest forms. Love will “bear out, even to the edge of doom”, to the last breath and beyond if it is true love (12). William Shakespeare believes that if what he wrote “be error […] no man ever loved” in the true sense of being in love. The love that is true in all forms, through the trials and to the very best moments.
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