sonnet 116

Question 1

summarise the peom

Answer 1

• gives various definitions of what love is and what love is not. Each quatrain illusrtrates this in a different way

Question 2

what type of argument does the speaker use

Answer 2

• frames the discussion of the passion of true love with restrained and disciplined rhetoric structure - making na almost legalistic argument for the eternal passion of love and as a result of the restraint in the speaker’s tone, the passion appears stronger

Question 3

how is love presented

Answer 3

• ideal and eternal - love is a union of thoughtful, true lovers. it emphasises true love as something steadfast and unwavering
• love is more powerful than time, and true love overcomes all barriers
• it presents an extreme ideal of romantic love - admitting no flaw, and outlasting death

Question 4

‘marriage of true mindes’

Answer 4

• a platonic intellectual ideal which echoes marriage vows - union of true minds - equals in the eyes ion love

Question 5

‘o no, it is an ever-fixed marke’

Answer 5

metaphor, scar - sense of permanence of love

Question 6

‘that looks on tempests and is never shaken’n

Answer 6

love weathers but true love is stronger - love defies all odds and is transcendent ad powerful

Question 7

‘love’s not times’s fool’

Answer 7

personification, love is not time’s jester

Question 8

‘though Rosie lips and cheeks within his bending sickles compass come’

Answer 8

more powerful than the superficial qualities of appearance - though time cn take away beauty it cannot take away loven

Question 9

assonance in like 11

Answer 9

encourages a slowed pace of reading, creating a sense of time slowing down. this contrasts with the clipped vowels in line 11: ‘his brief hours and weeks’ - love is eternal compared to the passing nature of time

Question 10

ends with a rhyming couplet

Answer 10

‘if this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, not no man loved’ - brings argument back to the speaker and shows his belief that love and his poetic abilities have the power to overcome death - sense of triumph and confidence

Question 11

significance of sonnet form

Answer 11

• sonnets were used to woo a lady and show poetical prowess

Question 12

renaissance context

Answer 12

• key element was humanism, focused on the achievements of man. death rate was high therefore grim reaper would have been a familiar figure
• Shakespeare argued his poetic ability allows him to conquer death and create a love hiqhich is arsenal
• poets didn’t just want to depict an ideal or perfect love, but rather create it
• poetry was intended to immortalise love