Sonnet 116 is one of the most famous love poems. The poem was written by William Shakespeare. In this poem the stanzas tell of different aspects of love. The first quatrain tells what love is not. The second quatrain tells what love is. The third quatrain tells more of what love is not. The last couplet is used to show the authors certainty. This form creates a great argument for the strength of true love.
Obviously, the poem is a sonnet; so it should follow a set of rules. A sonnet is a poem with fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme. The Italian sonnets were the first with the rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd. When the English picked up this poem style, they changed the rhyme scheme to abab cdcd efef gg. Because English is harder to rhyme, the change was made to give the English a larger selection of words to rhyme. The rhyme scheme change also changed the structure from the Italian (octave and sestet) to the English (three qua
Love’s not time’s fool, through rosy lips and cheeks
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
This quatrain tells what love is. The firs line calls it an “ever-fixed mark” unchanging. The second line says love is not shaken by temptation. The third line is a metaphor calling it, “a star to every wand’ring bark.” This line compares love to the North Star for a ship (bark). The forth line of the quatrain says love is not bounded by worth, but it can be felt. This line shows personification by the words “whose” and “his”.
Example Essays Home
