 |
| William Shakespeare |
Poem Analysis: LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS By William Shakespeare
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 a star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s 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 prov’d
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d
INTRODUCTION
This is a sonnet also called sonnet 116 written by a
British metaphysical poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) that tries to fill
the vacuum of infidelity and unfaithfulness in marriage relationships. The poet
shows that at least true love based on truth and understanding can exist. He
presents two glorious lovers who come into relationship freely and are trustful
to each other.
THEMATIC ANALYSIS
TRUE LOVE
The kind of love that Shakespeare brings out here is
the one that stands firmly even if there might be consequences to shake it. He
says that such kind of a love does not alter/change when it alteration finds.
For him true love is like “an ever-fixed
mark” which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8 he continues to say
although we may be able to measure love to some degrees, this does not mean we
truly understand it. Love’s actual worthy cannot be known- it is a misery.
O, no! it is an
ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests
and is never shaken;
It is a star to every
wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown,
although his height be taken
This kind of love that Shakespeare expresses is the
one that is unchangeable even when challenged by some circumstances. Love is
not flat but he warns that even if it means to go through upside downs they
should remain firm. It’s like a North
Star that guides the ship (bark) in deep sea.
On the marriage day there may really be no impediments
(obstacles) but in the long run, changes of circumstances, outward appearance
and other conducts may challenge the relationship. But lines 9-12 reaffirms
that, this kind of love is unshakable throughout time and always remains so.
Love alters not with his brief hours and
weeks,
But bears it out even to
the edge of doom.
UNFAITHFUL LOVE
On the other hand he shows that there is another
extreme of love that is not based on mutual love. If something happens to
challenge the relationship it breaks away.
…………………Love is not love
Which alters when it
alteration finds,
Or bends with the
remover to remove:
Lastly, in the final couplet the poet declares that if
he is mistaken in his view of the unmoveable nature of true love then he must
take back all his writings on love, truth and faith. Then he says if he judged
love inappropriately no man has ever really loved in the ideal sense that the
poet professes.
If this be error, and
upon me prov’d
I never writ, nor no man
ever lov’d
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
i)
Comment
on the Tone of the poem.
The tone is lovely because the poet generally talks
about love of two lovers
ii) What is the type Of
the Poem?
It is a sonnet made up of 14 verses (line)
iii) Comment on the
rhyming scheme/ Pattern
The poem has a regular rhyming pattern of
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
iv). Comment on the
Figures of speech and sound devices
Ø Metaphor
Love is compared to the star
It is the star to every
wandering bark
Ø Allusion
The first two lines are a manifest of allusion to the words
of the marriage service ‘if any one of you knows cause of just
impediments why these two persons should not be joined together in a holy
matrimony’
Ø Alliteration
….compass
come.
Ø Personification
The poet uses abstract things like Time and Love as
human beings to show that they can do of feel like human beings. He even uses
pronoun ‘his’ when referring to them. Eg Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
Is the poem relevant to
your society?
In the society today there are people with true love
though they are very few. Most of them fall in the category of love which
changes with circumstances. When challenged by poor income, lack of a child, or
any other challenge it easily breaks away though on the marriage day they
admitted to remain together until death separates them. And that they will
survive the coming impediments.
What lesson do you get
from the poem?
1) We
should cherish true love.
2) True
love is unshakable and remains so throughout time.
o What are impediments? What do you think the marriage
of true minds is?
In actual sense impediments means obstacles/
hindrances. In marriage service this is a covenant that the couple should make
to see to it that their love is free and willing.
o What does the poet mean when he says that you can
measure the height of a star but not its worth? How can you apply this to love?
Always we can only judge outward appearance of
something but inward characters are difficult to be measured. So even in the
case of love it is not what it always seems to be in the outside. It’s worth
lie deeper into the heart of someone. There is more to it than just outward
appearance. No one can read someone else’s heart.
o In Shakespeare’s day the word ‘fool’ could mean a
servant. Why is love ‘not Time’s fool’?
Love is not Time’s servant in a sense that love is
timeless. It does not last with time but it endures forever as long as those in
love have decided to remain in love no matter what circumstance may challenge
their relationship.
