Shakespeare's sonnet 116 announces "a definite step in the poet's war against time". Analyse the poem in the light of this statement.

Shakespeare's sonnet 116 announces "a definite step in the poet's war against time". Analyse the poem in the light of this statement.

Sonnet 116 is one of William Shakespeare's most well known and features the opening line that is all too quotable - Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments. It goes on to declare that true love is no fool of time, it never alters. It sets out to define true love by firstly telling the reader what love is not. It then continues on to the end couplet, the speaker (the poet) declaring that if what he has proposed is false, his writing is futile and no man has ever experienced love. The sonnet is an attempt by the poet to persuade the reader of the indestructible qualities of true love, which never changes, and is immeasurable.

The poem’s speaker opens the first quatrain with the statement “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments.”  He defines love as “the marriage of true minds” and claims that he does not wish to find fault with people who are already in love, but in order to be real love there can be no impediments.  The word “impediments” interrupts the second line’s iambic pentameter with its irregular syllables—it impedes the line itself.  The period that follows “impediments” causes a caesura in the middle of the line and draws further attention to the word.  With this, the poem’s focus is shifted from simply “love” to what prevents love from becoming true love.  The speaker continues the quatrain’s idea with “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove:”.  Here, the speaker discusses what true love is not:  it does not change when the beloved changes, and it does not disappear when one partner leaves.  Shakespeare’s use of repetition with “Love is not love,” “alters when it alteration finds,” and “remover to remove” further emphasizes his point.  True love, the speaker tells us throughout the first quatrain, becomes impaired when it fails to remain constant through time and space—love fails when it adjusts to fit the circumstances...........................................................................................................................................

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