Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

In the poem entitled "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," Shakespeare, speaking as the poet himself, presents the sonnet's central purpose of discussing the true nature of love through the use of poetic elements such as imagery, personification, and rhyme scheme. Indeed, Shakespeare is able to skillfully employ these devices to emphasize the immutable quality of love and the way in which it resists the damaging effects of time. In a world that undergoes continuous change, love is man's one constant.

The first line of the sonnet is significant for its use of legal or ceremonial imagery. Shakespeare's declaration "Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impedimentsa" (ll. 1-2) is reminiscent of the vows taken at a wedding ceremony, and expresses the poem's basic idea that nothing should interfere with the course of true love. It is the personification of that love, however, that is Shakespeare's most effective technique in conveying the poem's central purpose. In fact, love is described as an almost physical force, one which does not "aalter[s] when it alteration finds,/Or bend[s] with the remover to remove" (ll. 3-4). Love does not change according to its circumstances or wane because the beloved has gone away. Instead, it is "aan ever-fixed mark" despite the hardships that it might face (l. 5).

In choosing to describe love as this kind of force, Shakespeare is able to convince the reader that love is indeed strong enough to fight the ra

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