‘Let me not to the marriage of true mindes
Admit impediments, love is not love’
Marriage involves lasting love, ‘till death do us apart’. This is a view, that love does not alter whatever attempts are made to divert it. In these first four lines Shakespeare established his belief in the strength of true love.
At the start of the second quatrain Shakespeare starts of with ‘O no’. It is Shakespeare’s way of gaining the attention of the reader to persuade us that he is right. He uses a metaphor to back up his belief, ‘it (love) is an ever fixed marke’. He goes on to state that love cannot be shaken by the strongest storm:
‘That lookes on tempests and is never shaken’ (line 6)
He extended the metaphor by stating that love which guides every ‘wandering barke’, every ship struggling to steer a course at sea, using a bright star as its leading light. The height of the star can estimated, just as the clear signs of love can be judged, but the worth of the star is impossible to guess at in its power to direct ships and lives, just as the power of true love is vast.
In the third quatrain Shakespeare personifies love and time. Shakespeare brings home to us its (love) humanity and relationship to the reader in lines 9-13. This is because of the way Shakespeare personifies love.
‘Lov’s not times foole, through roise lips and cheeks’ (line 9)
Shakespeare also says that juvenile lovers will one day be forced to come face to face with old father time, but the spirit of love is able to overcome even time and death.
Shakespeare also expresses his beliefs about true love in ‘Shall I compare thee…?.
There is a slight air of satisfaction in the couplet, which ends the sonnet, a sense of Shakespeare’s leaning back rather smugly and saying, ‘Argue if you dare!’. He is saying he is absolutely convinced that he is right. He suggests if you can prove him wrong then everything is a lie, he never wrote anything and nobody ever loved anyone. The last two lines are rhyming couplets, as it is a sonnet:
‘If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved’
Shakespeare relies on exaggeration to some extent in an attempt to convince of the worth of true love.
‘But beares it out even to the edge of doome:’
This is a good example of hyperbole. It helps to convince the reader because the end of time seems a drastic and frightening prospect. Shakespeare also explains that there are certain barriers, which prevent love being real. The following lines point this out.
“Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration findes,
Or bends with the remover to remove.”
Shakespeare tries to get to a point by saying love should be kept the same, and it should never change, as it is eternal.
Shakespeare uses ‘marke’, to represent love and uses ‘tempest’ to represent problems. A marke is a fixed guide, this helps the sailors help their course correctly. A tempest is a storm. Like a marke, being unshakable against even the strongest storm. Love is also unshakeable by problems.
The mariner theme is used to represent ‘real love’. Stars were used to help guide sailors. A star is in the sky following a fixed course, this is used to give an idea about ‘real love’ being unshakeable.
“O’ no, it is an ever fixed marke
That lookes on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering barke,
Whose worths unknowne, although his highth be taken”
He explains that time cannot change ‘real love’. Shakespeare explains that ‘real love’ continues right up until death.
I feel that this poem is trying to convince others that he is correct, and that ‘real love’ is everlasting. The last two lines of the poem appear to rhyme but do not ‘proved’ and ‘loved’ are examples of near rhyme, their vowels sound different.
