Eternal And Unchanging Nature Of Love In William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

Within Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the reader is exposed to the idea that love is an over-arching shadow that casts itself over the entirety of the play, despite it being the most fundamental theme within the plot it is the main cause of nearly every major event that happens within the play. This is seen within Theseus’ monologue where he discusses the ideas of: love being able to drive you to do insane acts, love altering one’s perception of reality, and the lengths one is willing to go to in the name of love.

Shakespeare examines love in two different ways in Sonnets 116 and 130. In the first, love is treated in its most ideal form as an uncompromising force (indeed, as the greatest force in the universe); in the latter sonnet, Shakespeare treats love from a more practical aspect: it is viewed simply and realistically without ornament. Yet both sonnets are justifiable in and of themselves, for neither misrepresents love or speaks of it slightingly. Indeed, Shakespeare illustrates two qualities of love in the two sonnets: its potential and its objectivity. This paper will compare and contrast the two sonnets by Shakespeare and show how they represent two different attitudes to love.

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All” both attempt to define love, by telling what love is and what it is not. Shakespeare’s sonnet praises love and speaks of love in its most ideal form, while Millay’s poem begins by giving the impression that the speaker feels that love is not all, but during the unfolding of the poem we find the ironic truth that love is all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts love as perfect and necessary from the beginning to the end of his poem. Although these two authors have taken two completely different approaches, both have worked to show the importance of love and to define it. However, Shakespeare is most confident of his definition of love, while Millay seems

“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.

Sonnets are known for having a rigid format and being the hoard of poets’ flowery love confessions and tormenting heartache. While most poets generally stick to that cliche topic of love and the traditional English or Petrarchan structures, sonnets are not defined by these common features. Both Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are…” and Collins’s “Sonnet” satirically poke at typical sonnets, however, Shakespeare follows the standard English sonnet style while parodying the classic subject of love to show how ridiculous and idealistic love sonnets can be. On the other hand, Collins breaks free from those stern sonnet rules to joke about the strictness of sonnet structures while defining typical sonnet rules.

Within sonnet 116, Shakespeare personifies the abstract noun of love when he states ‘Whose worth’s unknown’. Through personifying his ideology of true love, it makes it increasingly

With its majority of scenes set in a fairy land, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream still feels much more authentic and tangible than many other love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, because the play greatly exposes the real difficulties of love. Such difficulties come not from external causes, but instead from the dark vision of our own human natures. In real life, the various impediments of love that Lysander and Hermia have mentioned, including “war, death, or sickness,” actually barely exist, but what we do face is the all-thwarting tests given by our own hearts (Shakespeare 1.1.142). To be more specific, in “The Darker Purpose of A Midsummer Night’s

True love should be timeless. Shakespeare attempts to provide an understanding of what so many people search for but hardly ever find. Instead they get involved in relationships that eventually fail and it's all because they don't really understand what love actually means. To refer to the beginning of the poem, Shakespeare begins with "Let me not ....admit," (1) denying that anything can ever come between true lovers or act as an impediment to their love. Love or "the marriage of true minds" (1) does not weaken when the circumstances given rise to it are changed or "alter when it alteration finds." (3)

To emphasize the significance of love to a human being’s survival, the poem begins with the many aspects that love isn’t capable of. By stating the ways love is useless in providing as a necessity of life, the speaker is able to persuade the reader(s) that it serves no real purpose. Displaying the a b a parts of a Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme, love “is not meat or drink nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; nor yet a floating spar to men that sink,” (Millay 1-3) it holds no practical value. It can’t provide you with food and shelter you from nature or even help you to survive. In other words, these stanzas connected the image of love to an idea of uselessness in surviving.

Shakespeare’s sonnet “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” elucidates Shakespeare’s thoughts and opinions on the theme, love. The poet describes how true love is eternal, how it can stand up to time and the way it resists negative inducement. During the sonnet, the poet changes the mood and atmosphere from somber to emotionally positive. Shakespeare uses many language techniques -such as metaphors, repetition and enjambment- to do this.

‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay are both sonnets that discuss companionship and a glimpse of each poet’s experiences. In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare illustrates how capability is weakened by its metaphysical stereotype and ideals such as, love, while on the contrary, in ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” Millay feeds on the chaos between the ideal of love and its harsh reality, heartbreak. Both poets seem to be love struck but there is a significant difference in the two. I will compare and contrast ‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I will also inquire and analyze why this particular form of poetry established different effects.

The title of the poem “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” suggests that the speaker is not in love with his ‘mistress’. However, this is not the case. Shakespeare uses figurative language by using criticizing hyperboles to mock the traditional love sonnet. Thus, showing not only that the ideal woman is not always a ‘goddess’, but mocking the way others write about love. Shakespeare proves that love can be written about and accomplished without the artificial and exuberant. The speaker’s tone is ironic, sarcastic, and comical turning the traditional conceit around using satire. The traditional iambic pentameter rhyming scheme of the sonnet makes the diction fall into place as relaxed, truthful, and with elegance in the easy flowing verse. In turn, making this sonnet one of parody and real love.

“Sonnet 130” written by William Shakespeare, is one of his most well known poems and can be analyzed and broken apart in great depth. The poem is written in fourteen lines which makes it a sonnet. Like all of Shakespeare’s sonnets the meter is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme for “Sonnet 130” is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. An overlaying theme for “Sonnet 130” is, “True love is based on how beautiful you find someone on the inside.” Shakespeare proves to have a great view on true love in this sonnet. He cares more about what’s on the inside rather than what’s on the outside. “Sonnet 130’s” theme can be proven by Shakespeare's use of poetic and literary devices, the tone and mood of the sonnet, and the motif of true love.

William Shakespeare is recognized for being one of greatest poets of all time. His works are still popular to this day. Many of his works included extended metaphors and similes with rhetorical language and were rooted in the nature of love. Two of his poems that are rather alike, but also very contrastive are “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and “My mistresses’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” They both contain a core theme of love or anti-love in some aspects. While these two poems are built around the same type of subject, their interpretations come across in separate ways. In contrast to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” which is a serious love poem that contains imagery and metaphors, Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is more negative and humorous but contains imagery and similes.

Shakespeare, who wrote the sonnets in 1609, expresses his own feelings through his greatest work of literature. The theme of love in the poems reflect thoughts from the Renaissance period. Love is one of many components of Shakespeare’s life shown in the sonnets. Love can be defined in many ways other than a strong affection for a lover. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the concept of love can be seen through many uncommon means such as the love of life before death in “Sonnet 73,” love in marriage in “Sonnet 116,” love through sexual desire in “Sonnet 129,” and love through nature in “Sonnet 130,” proving that love can be expressed through many different feelings and emotions.