The Ever-Fixed Mark
Sonnet 116 is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and beloved poems and for good reason too! Sonnet 116 is so well loved and is so famous because it deals with one of the most basic and fundamental parts of life, the part of life we all live for…love. Love is the main theme of sonnet 116, but not just any love, true love and it’s test of time. Shakespeare beautifully examines what make love true and unbreakable, what make it eternal.
This poem’s theme, and format, is not surprising for the era, Shakespeare was writing in a time where sonnets were an amazingly popular format. With their iambic pentameter and fourteen lines, they were and still are quite appealing poems. The theme, true love, is also a very appropriate subject …show more content…
Except for love. In the third quatrain he says that “love’s not time’s fool…” meaning that love does not play games with time. The word fool could even be seen a reference to Shakespeare’s time period. When Shakespeare was alive, a fool was an entertainer for the king. It could very well be interpreted in a way that Shakespeare is saying love does not mess around with time. Either way he is saying that real love is not under time’s wicked rule, love lives on. Later Shakespeare acknowledges “though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come,” meaning although youth and beauty (key factors in the beginnings of love) die, true love remains strong and …show more content…
He also uses them to describe true love. He says in quatrain two that love is “an ever-fixed mark” and that “it is the star to every wand’ring bark.” To better understand this metaphor it is important to know that a bark is a type of ship. In quatrain two he focuses on the whole concept that love is like a light in a storm. He says it is the guide that “looks on tempests and is never shaken.” Tempests are violent and windy storms; in this sentence it is understood that tempests is a metaphor for life’s struggles. He is saying true love is like a light or star guiding sailors. By this he means that true love will guide your life, help you make decisions, and help you withstand rough periods in your life. In line eight he says true love is like a star in that its altitude can be measured yet it’s worth is
Sonnet 116 is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and beloved poems and for good reason too! Sonnet 116 is so well loved and is so famous because it deals with one of the most basic and fundamental parts of life, the part of life we all live for…love. Love is the main theme of sonnet 116, but not just any love, true love and it’s test of time. Shakespeare beautifully examines what make love true and unbreakable, what make it eternal.
This poem’s theme, and format, is not surprising for the era, Shakespeare was writing in a time where sonnets were an amazingly popular format. With their iambic pentameter and fourteen lines, they were and still are quite appealing poems. The theme, true love, is also a very appropriate subject …show more content…
Except for love. In the third quatrain he says that “love’s not time’s fool…” meaning that love does not play games with time. The word fool could even be seen a reference to Shakespeare’s time period. When Shakespeare was alive, a fool was an entertainer for the king. It could very well be interpreted in a way that Shakespeare is saying love does not mess around with time. Either way he is saying that real love is not under time’s wicked rule, love lives on. Later Shakespeare acknowledges “though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come,” meaning although youth and beauty (key factors in the beginnings of love) die, true love remains strong and …show more content…
He also uses them to describe true love. He says in quatrain two that love is “an ever-fixed mark” and that “it is the star to every wand’ring bark.” To better understand this metaphor it is important to know that a bark is a type of ship. In quatrain two he focuses on the whole concept that love is like a light in a storm. He says it is the guide that “looks on tempests and is never shaken.” Tempests are violent and windy storms; in this sentence it is understood that tempests is a metaphor for life’s struggles. He is saying true love is like a light or star guiding sailors. By this he means that true love will guide your life, help you make decisions, and help you withstand rough periods in your life. In line eight he says true love is like a star in that its altitude can be measured yet it’s worth is