Sonnet 116 - William Shakespeare

Summary

'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 wand’ring 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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved'

Symbolism of marriage

Symbolism of love

Symbolism of death

Iambic Pentameter

The Speaker

Setting

Theme of loyalty