Medina, Kyle Irene Z.

BSED 421

Sonnet 116
If this be error and upon me
proved,
Let me not to the marriage of true
minds
Admit impediments. Love is not I never writ, nor no man ever love.
love
Paraphrase
Which alters when it alteration
finds,
There must be no objection in the
Or bends with the remover to marriage of the people, who truly
remove: love each other,

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark Love is not love when it change

That looks on tempests and is never Or easily goes away with another
shaken;
It is an ever fixed mark (lighthouse)
It is the star to every wandering
bark, That withstands storms and
difficulties
Whose worths unknown, although
his height be taken
It is a guiding star to every lover
Loves not Times fool, though rosy
lips and cheeks Love is priceless though acts of love
can be measured
Within his bending sickles compass
come: Love is not a slave of time, physical
beauty
Love alters not with his brief hours
and weeks, Fades and everything is in the
boundaries of death
But bears it out even to the edge of
doom.
Love does not change in every It everything written here is wrong
course of time and you have proved me wrong,

But endures everything until the end I have not written anything at all,
and no man has ever truly loved.

Medina, Kyle Irene Z.

BSED 421

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worths unknown, although his height be taken
Loves not Times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickles compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
 Sonnet 116 Interpretation

Upon reading the sonnet again and again, I have observed that there are lots of
words that were used to convey a deeper meaning for us. To have a clearer view of
Sonnet 116, I have looked for the meaning of the words used here for mere words or as
a metaphor and gave a slight interpretation of the poem as a whole then put it piece by
piece to come up with a clearer one.

Sonnet 116 is a beautiful poem about marriage and the true meaning of love. It
has a legal theme, and the words used were used like it was in a preceding, or a trial in
a court wherein we are talking about getting married of lovers and the signs to know
whether a love is true or not. Now, to understand it better we need compare and
contrast words in Shakespeares time and in our modern time. We will put our shoes to
his and there we will be able to comprehend it thoroughly.

The first quatrain is about the marriage and love, its characteristics and traits.
The speaker gives his mere opinion about marriage and the meaning of love. You can
particularly observe that he (Shakespeare) used enjambment in the lines. The first two
lines Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love, as
I have mentioned he used enjambment so if we are to translate it in our language, it will
become Let me not admit impediments to the marriage of true minds, it only means
that the speaker will not let any obstacles go their way because they have genuine love
so he will fight for it. In Shakespeares time true means straight, real and genuine and
he used mind to symbolize the whole connection, meaning real soul wanting oneness
because they really love each other. Then the next line goes like Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Now, if we
are to go back in his time: bend means something bad, and remover means someone
who will leave or move to another place. So, love is not love when you leave because
you saw a change. You really not love your partner when you are convinced to move
away because you saw another one you can be with. Love is not like that, unfaithful and
untrue. If love is like this, then it is not love at all.

The next quatrain talks about travelling, and navigation. Going back again to his
time, the most commonly used way of navigating is through ships. Comparing love to an
ever-fixed mark that is never shaken even in storms, we will come up to a light house
that stays strong even with various weathers. It will be a mark for the captain of the ship
to know where he is going. So, love is a guide and it is also something that withstands
all difficulties and struggles. The lines It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose
worths unknown, although his height be taken implies that love is always there for the
other and is priceless though you can measure the position of the star through altitude
meaning love though priceless, your acts of love can be observed.

The last quatrain conveys that love is not a slave of time because physical
beauty fades and human beings are always within the boundaries of death. It is said
here that love does not change through the course of time unlikely to our modern days;
it is an open secret that syota is short time, this is not the love we are talking about
because love stays without a specific span of time and it endures everything until the
last breath. In marriage, you vowed that you will be with each other until the end of time,
that until death do you part.

And for the couplet to end the sonnet, the writer himself claims that if you put him
to test and prove that his notion about love and marriage is wrong then he has not
written anything at all because no one has ever truly loved.

To sum it all, the writer wants to tell the world that love endures everything and
anything. Nothing can part the way of lovers as long as love truly lives in them. The
connection of two lovers will be unbreakable and they will continue to live as one. And
this is the meaning of true marriage of the mind, the heart and the soul.