Let me not to the marriage

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds                                A
Admit impediments. Love is not love                                        B
Which alters when it alteration finds,                                      A
Or bends with the remover to remove:                                    C
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark                                                   D
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;                           E
It is the star to every wandering bark,                                      D
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.         E
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks                F
Within his bending sickle's compass come:                             G
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,                       F
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.                             C
If this be error and upon me proved,                                        H
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.                                         H

 

Analysis

This sonnet follows the rules of the Elizabethan sonnet: it is composed by three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The title makes me understand it belongs to a collection because it is part of the first line of the poem. This is the sonnet 116 by william Shakespeare.  The rhyme scheme is ABAC , DEDE ,FGFC,GG. The speaker is going to give a message; the only marriage that Shakespeare wants is the marriage of the minds.  True love is a permanent mark that is indelible despite obstacles and temptations.True love is the star that guides every wandering ship, a fixed point although it is very distant. True love is not subject to the changes of time although humans are subjected to temptations. In the first quatrain Shakespeare says that true love is immortal and unchanging: it neither changes on its own nor allows itself to be changed, neither when the person changes. In the second quatrain there are a series of seafaring metaphors to underline the immortality of true love.In line 5 the poet says that love is "ever-fixed mark," a sea mark that navigators could use to guide their course. In the third quatrain the subject is Time. It doesn’t change love, hours and weeks can’t change a feeling like true love. Sonnet 116 closes with a statement for the validity of the poet's words.

What is the  function of three quatrains?

The three quatrains underline what true love is; it is a feeling that never change and it isn’t subjected to temptetions, it is a fixed point, a permanent mark that we will remember forever.

What is the message send by the poet in the rhyming couplet?

The poet underlines that if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes.

How does Shakespeare defines love in the first quatrain? Quote

 Love is not love                                                          
Which alters when it alteration finds,                                
Or bends with the remover to remove

Shakespeare underlines that True love is a permanent mark that is indelible despite obstacles and temptations  

 

How is love defined in the second quatrain?

In the second quatrain the poet describes love like the star that guides every wandering ship, a fixed point although it is distant.

Why are there so many compounds of “know” in second quatrain?

The word unknown provide a sense of perdition, of confusion. But true love is the star that guides every wondering ship.

Why is the retorical level the most important in quatrain three and what is his function?

The retoric level is very important because ,with the use of transparent metaphors, the poet gives his opinion on what true love must be and time can’t change a felling like this.

What is the function of ever/ never in the couplet?

I think that Shakespeare choses these words to make a sound effect; he wants to focus the reader’s attention on the final rhyming couplet that contains with a statement for the validity of the poet's words.