Sonnet 116 shakespeare Flashcards
(27 cards)
whats the significance of this poem sonnet 116
one of shakespeares best known love sonnets , popular choice for reading at wedding ceremonies
- thought to be an autobiographical poem
what is a sonnet
14 lines , each being 10 syllables long. poem which expresses a thought or idea and develops it, often cleverly and wittily. often about ideals or hypothetical situations . It reaches back to the Medieval Romances, where a woman is loved and idealised by a worshipping admirer.
whats the language and rhyme scheme used in sonnet 116
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
iambic pentameter ( 5 stressed and unstressed )The effect is stately and rhythmic, and conveys an impression of dignity and seriousness. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern.
- quatrain + rhyming couplet. typical of Shakespeare’s compositions. For contemporary readers today not all the rhymes are perfect because of changed pronunciation, but in Shakespeare’s time they would probably have rhymed perfectly
“let me not to the marriage of true minds, admit impendiments”
religious allusion . common book of prayer ( god reference is removed ) spiritual union, rather than physical one. no objectivisation of either gender;no genderisation ( links to theme of forbiddan love )
criticising marriage services of the elizabethan england
the poetic device used throughout; metonymy, where one thing stands for another. So, it isn’t the “true minds” that are married but the people with true minds.
syntax of the first three lines is unexpected, not as normally spoken and written, and are reminiscent of the lines of a marriage service. Impediment is lifted from the official Church of England wedding service,
This syntax is known as inversion or anastrophe. The purpose is to make the listener pay attention because it is different; or to build tension and suspense in anticipation of the main clause and the delayed verb.
- true minds suggests honesty and authenticity within one’s marriage ( reflective of G and Ls relationship ) a marriage that’s for the right reasons
“love is not love”
appearence vs reality, love isnt what it seems , emotions that transcends standard definition
“which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove “
love doesnt change
notion of immutability
rhythmic effect in lines 2 and 3 created by this repetition. The device is known as a chiasmus. In doing this, he highlights the contrast between enduring love and altered love.
Shakespeare was a master of this song-like effect, where an idea is compared to its opposite. Note, for example, in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’: “… other women cloy/ The appetites they feed but she makes hungry/ Where most she satisfies…”; here it is a contrast between repleteness and hunger
line ends with a colon= terminal caesura
- bends = love will not alter , isnt susceptible to external factors . it isnt powerless
‘Oh no! it is an ever fixed mark’
enduring nature of love. could be likedned to the pole star that guided sailors at the time.
‘oh no!’ - exclamation reveals his passion. reinforces the negations of the first quatrain.
- love as a guiding force ( nautical metaphors and lexical field of seafaring)
“that looks on tempests and is never shaken”
love is abke to view or look on tempests ( storms symbolising troubles and lifes adversity) and remain unshaken
relfects
” it is the star to every wandering bark”
emphasises the notion of love as a guiding entity
elizabethan time ships were believed to be guided by stars ; the determiner ‘the’ highlights the importance of said star . its the one aim of life
shakespeare argues humans should search for love, same way that boats search for stars for navigation
’ whos worth unknowne , although his higth be taken’
material value of love can never be calculated
presence impossible to describe .
’ his higth be taken’- nautical practice of measuring the height of a star above the horizon. physical measurement . in terms of love it is beyong measurable value
+ no one can put a value on love
” Lov’s not Times foole”
- capitalisation of time it has been personified. ineluctable nature of death? contradictory to love which is argued to be eternal.
‘not Times fool” would seem to mean ‘ not the plaything of Time, or subect of its mockery ( RSC Complete WOrks 2007)
this phrase was borrowed and adapted by Carol Ann Duffy to create te opposite meaning of her sonnet Hour where she writes ‘Loves times begger’= this device is known as intertextuality ( writers plunder past works,not the plagarise but to compliment )
‘though rosy lips and cheeks’
- rosy lips and cheeks represent life, birth, fertility, youth and beauty.
- beauty in shakespeares time = shortlives. due to ravages of disease like smallpox , poor diet , decayed teeth .
- hes saying even after beauty fades their love will endure
+ could be that over time many pretty girls ‘with rosy lips and cheeks’ may come and distract you. but true love will endure ts
‘Within his bending sickles compass come”
- reference to Grim Reaper or deth
‘ sickle’ a scythe used by grim reaper; reaping instrument. . further highlights the notion argued anout the ineluctable nature of death. paradoxical to love.
‘ compass come’ +
sibililance = slow clattering effect.
alliteration alludes to the clock ticking - compass , creates arcs that mimic the shape of the reapers sickle. another meaning of compass is the navigation one ( extended nautical metaphor of earlier lines)
’ love alters not’
- echoes the reference to alteration in line 3 ; emphasising unchangable nature of true love
’ with his brief hours and weeks’
- love dont alter with time
- critiques the lenght of love; believes life is so brief only equivolent to hours and weeks
- when spoken aloud this line moves quickly, further reflecting the rapid passing of time
’ but bears it out even to the edge of doom’
- ambigious
-monosyllabic - short and abrupt line
- love is almost compared to a challange, one has to bear it out in order to endure it
- may be an intertextual reference to 1 Corinthians13:7 “love bears all things” ; love overcomes hardship
- long vowels of ‘bears it out’ slows down the pace ( contrasts with the fast paced preceding)
- ’ edge of doom’ last day/ judgement day.; hyperbole
- huge jump from the previous ‘hours and weeks’
where else in literature is the ‘edge of doom’ also presented?
picked up by the Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her Sonnet 43, when she writes … “and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
technique of using and re-casting a well-known line from an earlier poet is known as intertextuality.
- half-rhyme of ‘come’ and ‘doom’. This is a pattern throughout; earlier Shakespeare rhymed ‘love’ and ‘remove’. In the final couplet he rhymes ‘proved’ and ‘loved’. I
- Would be wise to note that in the eizabethan times these words would have probably rhymed perfetly
that the centuries have changed the pronunciation
’ and if this be an error and upon me proved’
- lifes realities are often disregarded in this sonnet, poverty, grief, abuse, physical and emotional abuse
- almost celestial detached notion of love
- it is known that poems were circulated amongst educated circles, and they did not necessarily reflect the poet’s true emotions, but were intellectual exercises
’ i never writ nor no man ever loved’
forbidden love
- ts poem one of the fair youth sonnets addressed to a young male, homosexuality ?
A05; Art of Shakespearian sonnets faced with daunts interpretation task of shakespearian sonnets and have resorted to speculation of poem relation to young man.
- the final standalone couplet
A05
Tucker Booke - 110 of the simplest words in the english language and simplest rhyme schemes to produce a poem; strangeness of perfetion
description/ analysis of ts poem
- along with sonnet 18 ( shall i compare thee to a summers day) and 130 ( my mistress eyes are nothing like the sun) ts poem is one of the most famous in his entire sequence
- its definition of love= most quoted and anthologised in the poetic canon
-1st quatrain= what love isnt ( changable
- 2nd quatrain= what love is ( a fixed guiding star unshaken by tempests)
- 3rd quatrain = specifically states what love aint ( times fool)
- couplet= speakers uncertainty
- emotional power derived from its linguistic and emotional convictioj
what are the diff types of romantic love in sonnet form ie how we know shakes is gay
- first sonnets in 13th, 1th century = celelbrated poets feels for their loves. addressed 2 lionized women , dedicated nobelmen
- shakespeare addressed his sonnets to Mr W.H identity of ts man unknown
- he dedicated an earlier set of poems Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece to Henry Wriothesly, earl of southampton
how does shakespeare present love and lust in sonnet 127- 152 and how ts compared to his presentation of love in sonnet 116
love and lust portrayed as menacing ., causing emotional suffering , loss of perception and physical consequence like venereal disease
- unlike the steadfast idealised love in 116 , sonnet 127-152 shows love as unstable painful and corrupt
what emotional states does love cause in shakespeares later sonnets
fear, alienation, despair , physical discomfort
