Holly Patton
Mrs. Jernigan
English AP-IV
15 February 2011
“Sonnet 116”
William Shakespeare
Out of Shakespeare’s numerous sonnets, his 116th abounds in raw honesty and a pure outlook on love. It looks past any perspective that love is purely enchanting. It addresses that love contains “impediments” and that it “looks on tempests.” Shakespeare and countless others know this all too well. Lack of trouble in a relationship or marriage does not determine or define true love; rather it is love triumphing over any sort of shortcoming that portrays its purity. As Shakespeare expresses, “Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds…it is an ever-fixed mark…and is never shaken.” Shakespeare must have been privy to such a feeling of love; either that or he was a victim of love that indeed alter when it found alterations. Whichever scenario Shakespeare used as a lens for this beautiful sonnet, his words boast in earnestness and convey emotions from the deepest parts of one’s soul.
While he took some liberty in expressing suppressed emotions of the human soul, Shakespeare did not break the format of the traditional Elizabethan sonnet. Even in keeping the ten beats per line, his words do not sound rushed or stretched merely to keep the correct format. He manages to let meaning overflow in structured walls, something with which many poets seem to have trouble. While his depth fills every line, the universal statement (the last two lines) truly convey his adamant belief in this depiction of love: “If this be error and upon me proved,/ I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” He stakes his entire reputation on his belief, almost daring anyone to contradict him.
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