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It briefs the reader on what the sonnet is about and sets a scene for future development. The use of the negative, ‘not’, emphasizes that the poet wants to deny the truth. The negative also creates a slightly austere atmosphere. Through this and the synecdoche “marriage of true minds” it is shown that the poet envisions true happiness but there is something about what is happening that is troubling him. The enjambment applied here by Shakespeare is especially effective as it conveys a feeling of importance of the supposedly unwelcome information he is about to disclose; although he says he is not going to ‘Admit impediments’ –in this context, obstacles in the way of love. The caesura in the middle of line 2 gives the next statement a feeling of emotion and provides substance. The enjambment for the sentence “Love is not love/which alters when it altercation finds” gives an impression of true lovers being truthful to each other. Shakespeare has shifted the mood from one bordering on the negative to a more positive one. The constancy used in this line and the next, “Or bends with the remover to remove”, ascertains the fact that definite love does not change. The colon put to use at the end of this quatrain is indicative that in the following quatrain the poet will describe in detail a
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The exclamation, “O no!” informs us that true love is really not what he had written before. Shakespeare proclaims love to be; “It is an ever fixed mark/ That looks on tempests and is never shaken”. The positive “it is” used here differs from the negatives used before and accentuates the depiction of love’s actual form. Additionally, this line is also a deep metaphor in itself, meaning that love is an ever-fixed point that is unaffected by any storm. The semi-colon introduces another metaphor, “It is the star to every wandering bark”, which is a reference to how boats during that time were called barquentines, or barks, and how sailors used stars to navigate. This metaphor compares love to a paragon which all people look up to. The continuation of this metaphor, “Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken” declares that the love can be compared to in terms of other qualities but in itself has unfathomable value. This quatrain is actually an extended metaphor which Shakespeare has cleverly
The exclamation, “O no!” informs us that true love is really not what he had written before. Shakespeare proclaims love to be; “It is an ever fixed mark/ That looks on tempests and is never shaken”. The positive “it is” used here differs from the negatives used before and accentuates the depiction of love’s actual form. Additionally, this line is also a deep metaphor in itself, meaning that love is an ever-fixed point that is unaffected by any storm. The semi-colon introduces another metaphor, “It is the star to every wandering bark”, which is a reference to how boats during that time were called barquentines, or barks, and how sailors used stars to navigate. This metaphor compares love to a paragon which all people look up to. The continuation of this metaphor, “Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken” declares that the love can be compared to in terms of other qualities but in itself has unfathomable value. This quatrain is actually an extended metaphor which Shakespeare has cleverly