Sonnet 116

Question 1

Meaning

Answer 1

Shakespeare offers his own definition of love, asserting that it is not subject to time’s passage or external influences, and remains steadfast even in the face of challenges. He bets his carrer on it, saying that if he is wrote he has never wrote

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

-shakespearian sonnet
-enjambment
-couplet
-formal structure

Question 3

Shakespearean sonnet

Answer 3

-follows a regular rhyme scheme
-iambic pentameter
-traditionally sonnets are about love

Question 4

Enjambment

Answer 4

Connects his ideas through the poem

Question 5

Couplet

Answer 5

-if half rhyme maybe shows Shakespeare’s doubts
-if full rhyme is a conclusion, possibly sementing his statement in time, like signing a document

Question 6

Formal structure

Answer 6

Shakespeare sticks to the rules, like love must stick to his rules if it is to be true love

Question 7

Imagery

Answer 7

Temporal imagery
Visual imagery
Metaphorical imagery

Question 8

Temporal imagery

Answer 8

‘Brief hours and weeks’, ‘to the edge of doom’
-creates an impossible image of something being never ending
-calling weeks brief, when we would usually consider seconds brief shows his idea of love is immortal

Question 9

Visual imagery

Answer 9

‘Wandering bark’
-refers to a ship
-ship is a metaphor for a person
-creates the image in our minds of a person lost at sea (life) that is saved by love (stars)

Question 10

Metaphorical imagery

Answer 10

-‘times fool’ ‘rosy lips’
-we get the image of a person growing old, but love never changing, as if love is separate to our bodies and is something greater than

Question 11

Language

Answer 11

-Personification
-assonance and consonance
-metaphors
-alliteration
-hyperbole
-polyptoton

Question 12

Personification

Answer 12

-he personifies love and time(and possibly death), with love seeming to be the stronger of the two,
-the personification is able to portray love as a power that can surpass that of time that all things eventually loose to, except love

Question 13

Assonance and consonance

Answer 13

-give the poem a nice and multifaceted spoken sound, reflecting what love is auditorily

Question 14

Metaphors

Answer 14

-love is compared to a star, which suggests light, power, and longevity.
-it is a star that guides, showing that it actually aids us rather that just being a powerful beautiful light in the sky

Question 15

Alliteration

Answer 15

Reflects the romantic aspects of love through sound, it sounds good basically

Question 16

Hyperbole

Answer 16

-‘edge of doom’
-we die so that isn’t possible, unless Shakespeare suggests after death
-reflects the great strength Shakespeare thinks love has, as well as once again personifying it

Question 17

Polyptoton

Answer 17

-alters, alteration
-emphasises his points
-provokes thought