Shakespeare Sonnet 116

Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 is the most popular and a typical form of the Shakespearean sonnet. It is loved by many people because of its subject. In fact, it has been featured in several wedding ceremonies worldwide. The theme of this sonnet is love and marriage, the poet present love as eternal and everlasting.

            The poet begins that he should not come in the way of true love. True love never changes for any cause. Love is believed to be stable, through any complexities. In the sixth line, a naval allusion is made; referring that love is a lot like the North Star to the sailors. Love must not weaken with time but the true love is that which lasts forever.   

            This sonnet is a typical example of the Shakespearean sonnet as it consists of the characteristic three quatrains and a couplet. In the quatrain 1, the poet begins its sonnet by saying that marriage is the bond between two true minded people. The love is always true, constant and steady. It does not change with the change in personality of the loved ones or of the variations in the different situations of life. Love is perfect and unchanging it remains continuous and unchangeable. It does not even bend in complex situations like when the loved one becomes unfaithful and disloyal; it is always firm like it was before. Love is not love if it changes according to the situation; true love is that which remains firm and steady in all the circumstances.

The second quatrain is made impressive by the use of different symbols. The poet describes love that it is just like a lighthouse. Love is not vulnerable to the storms; it is never shaken or weakens by any changes. Love is not disturbed by any changes just like the light house is fixed after so much variation in the weather. The metaphor of a guiding star is used to explain the eternal love just like the stars are to the sailors of the lost ships. Love is not changeable; it’s just like a star, inaccessible, steady and self-contained. The value of love can never be measured or calculated; it’s worth and significance is infinite.

In the third quatrain, once again Shakespeare’s idea of love is enlightened that it is not at the mercy of time. It’s not at all like the beauty which fades with the passage of time but love is a feeling, a passion that does not change with hours and weeks. It remains constant and same in all the situations. Physical beauty may vanish with the growing age but love endures until the last day of life. The last two lines of this quatrain is the central point of this sonnet that love is everlasting and it does not change with the alteration in the time or the circumstances. Love is eternal and perpetual.

In the end, the couplet provides a dramatic, impressive and quite bold concluding statement. The poet attests that certainty love is like what he says because if his declaration can be proven to be wrong, then he says that if his idea of love is not correct then he will never have written these lines and no man will love this sonnet. But as we can see it now, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is loved all over the world which is the confirmation that his ideas on love are accurate i.e. love is eternal. It is an everlasting emotion that does not change with the passage of time.

The Shakespeare’s view of love is true as love can never be changed or weakened, it’s the refreshing part of the life that a person always hold and never let it off. It can be seen in practical life that the two people who love each other always wants to remain together and cherish the moments spent together. The love between the two never weakens. Instead, by passing time love grows stronger. Love is eternal and can bee seen in any two friends, between parents and children or in any loving husband and wife. It’s the bond and a connection of two minds.