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True love is the strongest emotion experienced by human beings and can withstand all trials and tribulations, including, but not limited to those of time, fear, anger, and grief. Shakespeare relates the idea of true love to the idea of strength through the image he creates in the lines "O no, it is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken" (5-6). In these two lines, Shakespeare explains that love can withstand all storms that attempt to break it down. In line five, Shakespeare writes that love is an "ever-fixed mark" which is something on land to plot a course by, also known as a sea mark. This image portrays true love as a sort of lighthouse, standing tall and strong through many kinds of storms; thunderstorms, snow storms, hail storms, etc. True love stands strong through arguments, disagreements, and any other rough times it endures, the same as a lighthouse stands strong through all of the weather storms it endures through time. True love can withstand any and all trials it endures on its course. .
Another image that Shakespeare creates in "Sonnet 116" to show that true love can withstand all trials and tribulations is in the lines "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" (9-12). In these four lines, William Shakespeare compares time to being like the devil, which destroys the beauty of youth. Although time diminishes the outer beauty of youth, "rosy lips and cheeks" (9), the beauty of true love does not disappear through time. True love holds the ultimate strength; it can withstand the trial of time. .
True love is an eternal emotion which involves eternal beauty and eternal happiness. The previous image of time being like the devil, in lines nine to twelve of "Sonnet 116" equates true love with more than just strength; these four lines equate true love with being an eternal emotion because true love lasts to the end of time despite all of the trials it experiences on its path.