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Analysis Of Sonnet 116 By Shakespeare
Date : 09/03/2021
Author Information
Uploaded by : Gabriella
Uploaded on : 09/03/2021
Subject : Creative Writing
WHO WAS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE?
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre which is sometimes called the English Renaissance.
Shakespeare was a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain s Men, a company of actors, which evolved into The King s Men under the patronage of King James I from 1603. Shakespeare was one of the company`s main playwrights producing on average two plays a year for almost twenty years.
Altogether Shakespeare`s works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets and a variety of other poems.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
It s important to look at history, not because we re trying to understand the past, but because we re trying to understand how things came to be, how certain events shaped a specific moment in time. The preceding 1400s, closed with explorers like Columbus opening up new trade routes, Europeans invading and exploiting indigenous lands and bringing slaves (Native Americans, South Americans, Africans, African Caribbeans) to Europe.
At the beginning of the 1500s, England was a Roman Catholic country, but The Reformation caused conflict because there was a push to make Protestantism the main religion, otherwise known as The Church of England with the Monarchy as its head.
Women were treated as ornaments, as if they didn t have souls or the intelligence to make decisions for themselves. If they were middle class or upper class women, their survival was dependent on marrying into a wealthy family. They belonged to their Fathers and husbands. If they were working class, they would be women who worked in factories or in wealthy houses as servants.
In the lead up to Shakespeare writing Sonnet 116, it was a hothouse for creative minds: Leonardo da Vinci completed the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel, Machiavelli wrote his book `The Prince and of course last, but not least, Sonnet 116 was published in 1609.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well, it s important to know what was going on at the time, especially if you were an artist because like today people can influence each other via social media, it was the big names like Da Vinci and Shakespeare who s work influenced one another.
THE POEM
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.O no! it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shakenIt is the star to every wand`ring bark,Whose worth`s unknown, although his height be taken.Love`s not Time`s fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle`s compass comeLove alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me prov`d,I never writ, nor no man ever lov d.
Read the poem, what images are conjured up for you? What themes reoccur?
To begin with, the poem s tone of voice is rather plain and pragmatic. There are few poetic images. It feels a little controlled and official like the marriage certificates we sign. This is to certify this and that
The language feels a little distant, a little too proud and independent then in line 5, the language feels more vulnerable and expressive, note the exclamation point. Then around line 9, the poem feels tangible and it becomes earthbound by the images of a compass and death.
There is something laborious about the tone of voice, as if Shakespeare is trying to grapple with the concept of true love.
Love is not - Shakespeare uses negation to define love, love is not.
When we try to define the concept of love, sometimes it s easier to define love by looking at what love isn t rather than what love is. We most definitely know what love isn t, but what love is will be subjective depending on who is experiencing love.
He says, we know love does not change or stop just because our circumstances change. These changes could be anything that could cause a rift between couples who are experiencing life together, times of momentous transitions like changing jobs or moving house, deaths and births of family members.
(This is just a taster of my teaching style, if you wish to find out more, get in touch.)
This resource was uploaded by: Gabriella
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre which is sometimes called the English Renaissance.
Shakespeare was a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain s Men, a company of actors, which evolved into The King s Men under the patronage of King James I from 1603. Shakespeare was one of the company`s main playwrights producing on average two plays a year for almost twenty years.
Altogether Shakespeare`s works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets and a variety of other poems.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
It s important to look at history, not because we re trying to understand the past, but because we re trying to understand how things came to be, how certain events shaped a specific moment in time. The preceding 1400s, closed with explorers like Columbus opening up new trade routes, Europeans invading and exploiting indigenous lands and bringing slaves (Native Americans, South Americans, Africans, African Caribbeans) to Europe.
At the beginning of the 1500s, England was a Roman Catholic country, but The Reformation caused conflict because there was a push to make Protestantism the main religion, otherwise known as The Church of England with the Monarchy as its head.
Women were treated as ornaments, as if they didn t have souls or the intelligence to make decisions for themselves. If they were middle class or upper class women, their survival was dependent on marrying into a wealthy family. They belonged to their Fathers and husbands. If they were working class, they would be women who worked in factories or in wealthy houses as servants.
In the lead up to Shakespeare writing Sonnet 116, it was a hothouse for creative minds: Leonardo da Vinci completed the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel, Machiavelli wrote his book `The Prince and of course last, but not least, Sonnet 116 was published in 1609.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well, it s important to know what was going on at the time, especially if you were an artist because like today people can influence each other via social media, it was the big names like Da Vinci and Shakespeare who s work influenced one another.
THE POEM
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.O no! it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shakenIt is the star to every wand`ring bark,Whose worth`s unknown, although his height be taken.Love`s not Time`s fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle`s compass comeLove alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me prov`d,I never writ, nor no man ever lov d.
Read the poem, what images are conjured up for you? What themes reoccur?
To begin with, the poem s tone of voice is rather plain and pragmatic. There are few poetic images. It feels a little controlled and official like the marriage certificates we sign. This is to certify this and that
The language feels a little distant, a little too proud and independent then in line 5, the language feels more vulnerable and expressive, note the exclamation point. Then around line 9, the poem feels tangible and it becomes earthbound by the images of a compass and death.
There is something laborious about the tone of voice, as if Shakespeare is trying to grapple with the concept of true love.
Love is not - Shakespeare uses negation to define love, love is not.
When we try to define the concept of love, sometimes it s easier to define love by looking at what love isn t rather than what love is. We most definitely know what love isn t, but what love is will be subjective depending on who is experiencing love.
He says, we know love does not change or stop just because our circumstances change. These changes could be anything that could cause a rift between couples who are experiencing life together, times of momentous transitions like changing jobs or moving house, deaths and births of family members.
(This is just a taster of my teaching style, if you wish to find out more, get in touch.)
This resource was uploaded by: Gabriella