# Sonnet CXVI explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by William Shakespeare.

## What happens

The poet defines true love as an unchanging, eternal force that withstands all obstacles and even time itself, asserting that if this definition is wrong, then he has never written nor has anyone ever truly loved.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Desire

Celebrates true love as unchanging and eternal, transcending physical alteration and time.

### Time and Mortality

Time is portrayed as a destructive force, but love endures beyond its reach, even to the edge of doom.

## Character check-ins

### Love

Personified as an ever-fixed mark and guiding star, immune to alteration and time.

### Time

Depicted as a destructive force with a bending sickle, yet unable to fool true love.

## Key lines

> Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments.

I will not allow any obstacles to the union of two loyal souls.

_Opens with a defiant declaration against anything that might hinder true love._

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

Love is not genuine if it changes when circumstances change or yields to pressure to leave.

_Defines true love as steadfast and unchanging._

> O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

No, love is like a permanent beacon that withstands storms without wavering.

_Uses a nautical metaphor to emphasize love's stability._

> Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love is not subject to Time's power, even though physical beauty fades under Time's scythe.

_Contrasts love's endurance with the transience of physical appearance._

> Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Love does not change with short periods of time but lasts until the end of the world.

_Emphasizes love's eternal nature, beyond temporal limits._

> If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

If this definition of love is proven wrong, then I have never written anything, and no one has ever truly loved.

_A bold concluding claim that stakes the poet's entire work and the concept of love on this truth._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters/cxvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_28_se/chapters