Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116) by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds  

Admit impediments. Love is not love  

Which alters when it alteration finds,  

Or bends with the remover to remove:  

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;  

It is the star to every wandering bark,  

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.  

Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks  

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love 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.

Some thoughts…

On the Poet: William Shakespeare (1564-1616), wrote in addition to his plays, 154 sonnets featuring love, beauty, and impending mortality as their main themes. They were published in 1609 and abound in controversy and mystery. There is not only the eternal question of whom they addressed; but also, to whom they were bequeathed; and, whether the publisher (Thomas Thorpe) had secured the Bard’s permission to publish his poetry. And whether, in fact, Shakespeare himself was the author of all 154 sonnets.

Barring any conclusive evidence to the contrary, let’s give the Bard the credit of authorship; and set aside the other controversies for the experts to sort out.

On the Poem: The term sonnet is a derivative of sonetto - Italian for ‘a little sound’ or ‘song’. The ordinary sonnet consists of fourteen lines. The Shakespearean Sonnet is notable for having three quatrains and a couplet with a rhyming scheme of abab, cdcd, efef,gg. 

On a Personal Note: What I find most striking about this poem is its deliberate, discursive tone. 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds  

Admit impediments.

The poet is not talking of marriage in a literal sense, but of hearts united in love. No obstacles should be permitted to bar such a union.

The next few lines are a thoughtful look at what love is by eliminating that which it is not.

Love is not love  

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Love is constant in the face of inconstancy – be it the fickleness of the beloved, or changes in circumstances (you know - ‘for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health’).

Or bends with the remover to remove:  

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

No one can ‘remove’ true love; it abides, it endures, it prevails.

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;  

It is the star to every wandering bark,  

 Love is steady in the face of storms; the North Star by which we navigate our lives.

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

This line continues the previous nautical allusion and the metaphor of the North Star; the interpretation is that though the star’s make-up is unfathomable, yet its position is known to mariners.

Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks  

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

The charms of youth are subject to the changes inflicted upon them by Time. Love, however, is untouched by its vicissitudes. The ‘bending sickle’ is a reference to the Grim Reaper, a personification of Death. Time brings Death in its wake.

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,  

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.  

Love is immutable, eternal; ‘…until death do us part’.

 If this be error, and upon me prov’d,  

 I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

And if it may be proved that what the poet says is false, then he has never written anything true; nor has anyone ever loved.

The poet employs some weighty metaphors and Elizabethan legalese to declare his point. But leaving aside its solemnity and logical deconstruction, the essence of the poem is the essence of love – l’amour est éternel.