Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

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 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. 

I. Recalling

         a. List 3 or 4 things that love is not according to Sonnet 116.

                   -Love is not love which alters when changes occur or bends with the remover to remove.

                   -Love is not Time's fool

                   -Love does not alter with hours and weeks, but rather , endures until the last days of life.

         b. List several things that love is according to Sonnet 116

                  -An ever fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken

                  -The star to every wandering bark.

II. Interpreting

          a. What is the meaning of the image of the star in lines 7-8?

                  - It means that love can be measured but can never be fully understood

          b. How does this image apply to love

                  -You can see how much a person loves someone or something, but no one can actually understand it, since its value can never be known for it's a mystery.

III. Extending

          a. Do you agree or disagree with the speaker's interpretation of love? Why or why not?

                  -I agree, since it is true that many have endured hardships because of love. It is also true that love doesn't change through days nor weeks, but through a lifetime.