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 prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
William Shakespeare
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Love alters not
I will return with another Sophie Hannah poem as promised on Friday, but today here is a more classic poem by William Shakespeare, that encapsulates love's steadfastness, and is one of my all-time favourites. There are no doubt many possibilities for what he intended by "true minds", but after reading chapter 3 about the importance of our thoughts let's take poetic license and give it the meaning of those who together think rightly about marriage. I particularly love the lines "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove". Incase you get confused, "bark" means a man, and later in the poem Shakespeare has personified "Time", and given him a sickle that cuts down rosy lips and cheeks, so the "his" of line 11 is referring to time.
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