Shakespeare Use Figurative Language In Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds

Although much of the world we live in seems to be structured and ever-lasting, the reality of this life is simply a brief breath to the ever-changing universe. The towering structures of man will eventually fade into the distant abyss of time and memory. Contrary to physical matter, love is a concept which cannot die and continues to strive, despite the decaying world in which we live. In his sonnet, “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds,” William Shakespeare uses methods including personification and figurative language, to show that, although physical beings decay, the higher order of true love cannot falter. In the first eight lines of his sonnet, Shakespeare personifies love and characterizes it as steadfast and without flaw. In order for a love to be true, Shakespeare reveals that there must be no “impediments” to the “marriage of true minds” (1, 2). For if there are imperfections in love, it cannot be true, and, therefore, not able to withstand …show more content…
Time has no control over true love’s regard and is not “Time’s fool” (9). Despite time’s control of physical beauty, it does not come “Within his bending sickle’s compass” (10). This metaphor portrays time holding a sickle, a common faming tool used to cut down crops. Although this sickle can cut down the physical beauty of this world, the crop that is love cannot be reached by this devastating tool. Love remains unaffected and “alters not with [time’s] brief hours and weeks” (11). Although man’s body is destroyed by time, the connection between lovers is something that is beyond the realm of time’s lordship. Similarly, the “edge of doom” does not impart destruction upon true love (12). Even in the last moments of life, when time’s power assumes full control and carries one into the next stage of existence, love remains