Show how the poet uses language to explore the theme of love in the poems studied in class. Specific reference should be made to Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress".

Authors Avatar

        Poetry Coursework         

Show how the poet uses language to explore the theme of love in the poems studied in class. Specific reference should be made to Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 and Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is a typical Shakespearian sonnet. It was written in the sixteenth century love poem, which presents the poets view of true love in three quatrains and an affirmation of his belief in a concluding rhyming couplet. This poem depicts the unwavering nature of true love. The speaker tells us that real love cannot be tarnished or destroyed by time, and is everlasting. In the opening lines, the speaker makes this clear. He tells us that true love is the

        “marriage of true minds”.

He tells us that there can be no impediment to true love and that nothing can dissolve its strength or change its innate quality,

        “… Love is not Love,

        Which alters when it alteration finds,

        Or bends with the remover to remove.”

Shakespeare is trying to explain to us that, in his opinion, true love cannot be affected by outside circumstances. It would seem that real love cannot change over time, and can never be taken away, even if one of the partners dies.

In the next quatrain of the poem, the speaker begins to tell us what love “is” by telling us enthusiastically

        “Oh no! it is an ever-fixed mark.

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark”

Shakespeare is trying to make us see that no matter what pressure true love is under it will not change. He shrewdly uses the metaphor for love as the North Star and the lovers as the wandering bark being tossed by life’s experience. The North Star is the constant guide for seafarers, guiding them through the darkest of nights to their homes and never faltering from its purpose. In the same way true love will keep lovers on the path to togetherness. By using this metaphor, Shakespeare makes the poem more relevant to the Elizabethan reader, familiar with the importance of a ship at sea being guided home to a safe harbour. The North Star lead sailors in their “barks” out of the tempests they faced, as true love leads a couple out of any difficulties they have in their relationship.

Join now!

In the last quatrain, Shakespeare concentrates on the ever-present issue of Time harming Love. He vehemently denies that Love can be destroyed by Time. Shakespeare personifies both Love and Time in order to emphasize this battle or struggle between the two, reasserting that Love cannot be betrayed by Time,

        “Love’s not Time’s fool”

Love is not ensnared by time, it cannot fade over time, and it is eternal. The sensation of love cannot be affected by the mere degradation of our physical selves. Shakespeare compares time to the grim reaper, which is fabled to appear to people who ...

This is a preview of the whole essay