William Shakespeare and Sonnets

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor.
• He is most famous for his 37 plays.
• Shakespeare was brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• He married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18.
• Shakespeare and Anne had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
• Between 1585 and 1592, he moved to London, becoming a successful actor, writer, and owner of a theatre company.
• In 1613 Shakespeare returned to Stratford-upon-Avon as a success.
• He died three years later, aged 52.

Sonnet Background

• Sonnets are fourteen-line poems with a set rhythm and rhyme scheme, invented in mediaeval Italy.
• The rhythm used is iambic pentameter, containing ten syllables per line, with every second syllable stressed.
• Rhyme scheme depends on whether it is an Italian/Petrarchan sonnet or an English/Shakespearean sonnet, here it is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, made famous by Shakespeare.
• The rhyme scheme divides the sonnet into three quatrains, sets of four lines that rhyme together.
• The final two rhyming lines form a rhyming couplet, which provide a conclusion or summary.
• Sonnets were the novels of their day; they were written in sequences with each sonnet forming another chapter in a story, this sonnet is number 116 of 154.
• Traditionally sonnets were written by aristocratic men with titles to show off their cleverness.
• Shakespeare came from a relatively poor background; his father was a glove maker.
• Traditional subjects were the adoration of a female Beloved figure, too pure and religious to consider human love.
• Shakespeare wrote 126 of his sonnets to a young male friend, and only 28 sonnets to a Dark Lady, with whom the poetic voice has a passionate sexual relationship.
• Many critics view the poems as autobiographical, but there is little evidence for this.
• Shakespeare took all the traditional ingredients of a sonnet sequence and turned them on their heads to show how original and clever he was.
• Shakespeare's sonnets may be an attempt by him to be seen as a more serious and inventive writer.
• During Shakespeare's life time writing plays was considered great entertainment, but not necessarily great art.

Summary of Sonnet 116

• The sonnet attempts to explain and define what true love is.
• The requirements of perfect love become increasingly difficult to express and to achieve during the course of the poem.
• The end of the sonnet leaves the reader wondering if a true love is something we can ever attain in the real world.

Analysis of Sonnet 116

Line 1

• The poem plunges the reader into the middle of a thought.
• The poet does not allow 'impediments' or obstacles to 'the marriage of true minds'.
• 'Impediments' alludes to the marriage service asking if there are any obstacles to the marriage.
• The poem places the reader in the world of married love.
• The poet is implying that only people who bring together 'true minds' should be allowed to marry.
• Shakespeare is suggesting that the only sort of love which should be allowed to exist is one which is based on spiritual or intellectual compatibility.
• Shakespeare sets the bar very high and begins a discussion about what true love is really about.

Lines 2-4

• The sonnet is peppered with negative words - 'not', 'no' and 'never'.
• Shakespeare finds perfect love so difficult to explain that he can only describe it by saying what it is not.
• In line two 'love is not love'.
• Real love does not alter 'when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove', suggesting constancy as a key aspect.
• A lover does not stop loving if their Beloved changes or if their Beloved removes their love.
• True love will not be flexible or 'bend' with the Beloved if they decide to 'remove' that love.
• This could be seen as frighteningly single-minded, and lacking in appreciation of the partner's wishes to leave the relationship.

Lines 5-6

• 'O' is an outburst of emotion.
• Shakespeare is really pushing himself to make sense of the concept of love.
• Love is an 'ever-fixed mark', an image of constancy.
• The metaphor compares love to a 'mark' which cannot move, the steadiness of love seems very positive here.
• 'Mark' also means a stain which cannot be washed out, highlighting that a perfect love may be something so difficult to achieve that it is not even possible in the real world.
• Introducing the metaphor of a storm, true love 'looks on tempests and is never shaken', meaning love is not altered by the troubled moments in a relationship.

Lines 7-8

• Love is 'the star to every wandering bark'.
• A 'bark' is a ship which is 'wandering', sounding aimless or lost.
• The metaphor compares love with a star used by sailors to navigate ships, a guide in life which helps you when you are off course.
• The star is described as an entity 'Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken'.
• Sailors would use a sextant to calculate the angle from the pole star in order to navigate by the stars.
• While some aspects of the star can be measured or 'taken', the vast majority of its wonder remains 'unknown', as with love.

Lines 9-10

• A new image of love is introduced.
• 'Love's not Time's fool' means real love will not perform like a jester in the court of Time's kingdom.
• Real love is not made fun of by the years passing.
• The 'rosy lips and cheeks' of youth will be destroyed with Time's 'bending sickle'.
• Time is the Grim Reaper, a figure with a blade to cut down human life.
• Therefore true love will not diminish even when the Beloved is no longer young and beautiful.

Lines 11-12

• Real love will not change, it 'alters not with his brief hours and weeks'.
• Instead, love 'bears out even to the edge of doom'.
• 'Doom' alludes to Doomsday or Judgement Day in the Bible.
• The world would end on Doomsday, when God would judge all souls.
• After this time, the world would be destroyed.
• True love 'bears it out', meaning to carry a burden or do something strenuous and difficult.
• A perfect love must remain faithful to their Beloved not only during life, but also after it, until God returns to decide their fate or judge them.
• Shakespeare implying that our love is not true unless we can remain in love in the afterlife is almost unimaginable.

Rhyming Couplet - Lines 13-14

• Shakespeare has set the bar high for love that it almost seems impossible to reach.
• We have to wonder if any couple could really live up to such high standards of fidelity and constancy.
• The first word of the couplet is 'If', a conditional suggesting a conclusion is not going to be easy.
• 'If this be error' makes him sound uncertain, wondering if he has made a mistake or an 'error'.
• In the last line 'I never writ; nor no man ever loved'.
• This suggests that because Shakespeare did write, this must really be what love is.
• Three negatives in one line 'never', 'nor' and 'no', ultimately suggest that what Shakespeare is describing must be correct or no man has 'ever loved', but they mount up making the reader feel uncertain.

Rhyme

• Add to the uncertainty is the rhyme and rhyming couplet.
• The last two lines of an English or Shakespearean sonnet are meant to rhyme for a happy conclusion, but here 'proved' and 'loved' appear to rhyme on paper, but when read aloud do not.
• They are what is called a half rhyme.
• Shakespeare has ended his poem defining the beauty of love with a deformed and misshapen couplet.
• The whole idea of people coming together in perfect unison is deconstructed in this rhyme.
• The sonnet leaves us wondering if true love can ever be described, and if true love can ever be achieved.