Sonnet 116

Question 1

Main structure?

Answer 1

1. Shakespearean sonnet

Question 2

Rhyme Scheme?

Answer 2

ABABCDCD - predictability of rhyming scheme shows how love does not alter no matter what

Question 3

Meter?

Answer 3

1. Iambic pentameter
2. Measured, harmonious tone - constancy and order of true love
3. Occasional metrical inversions add variation - strength and resillience of love under pressure

Question 4

Rhetorical cohesion?

Answer 4

1. Use of antithesis gives poem a philosophical quality
2. Didactic tone - teaching us about love and its universal truths

Question 5

Final rhyming couplet?

Answer 5

1. Small volta - epigrammatic nature gives the poem a difinitive tone
2. Conditional sctruture “if” - rhetorical certainty and emphatic finality