Poetry
Sonnet 116
Form – Shakespearean sonnet, assonance, monosyllabic words, iambic
pentameter
Structure – rhyming final couplet, enjambment, polyptoton
Rhyming final couplet – ‘if this error upon me be proved…’
- Hyperbolic final statement showing his true faith in true love – puts
all his works on the line, coming out of the speaker and speaking as
shakespeare
- Pronouns – personal, emotional
- Rhyming couplets are typical Shakespearean method and represent
a certain, resounding conclusion
- Dissonance – love can be hard
- Caesura – dramatic pause, emotional, passion, persistence of love
- Iambic tetrameter – addresses reality
Language – metaphor of marriage, metaphor of the north star, and
personification
Metaphor of marriage
- ‘marriage of true minds’ – criticises legal union of marriage,
progressive lack of pronouns – love of equals, queer theory may
assert the homosexual undertones
- ‘love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’ - love eludes
definition, the word used too flippantly in society, not a lot of true
love around, reference to a church altar and the convention of
marriage, enduring love, polyptoton and enjambment – smoothness,
lyrical, harmony
Metaphor of north star
- ‘it is the star to every wandering bark’ – the star not a star, devotion
and commitment, realistic not idealistic as love needs direction and
guidance sometimes, empowering and grounding force, metaphor of
ship on waters shows difficulties and ebbing and flowing of love,
virgin mary as biblical star of the sea guiding sailors to safety,
shows fateful and pure love, assonance
Personification
- ‘loves not time’s fool’ – capitalisation shows significance and power,
love is as sure as the passing of time, enduring love that withstands
age, death, time periods and society, typical of Shakespeare’s
sonnets, love is no fool, shouldn’t be mocked by the tool of
marriage, death common
Literary traditions
, - Fair youth collection – sonnets typically positive about love, passion
etc
- 116 sits between 2 more negative poems, about deception and
betrayal, acting as a positive light asserting the beauty of love
- Before dark lady collection, which shows the shift in shakespeare’s
life when he moved to London
Context
16 century marriage
- Marriage was a formal contract, and not between equals – women
forced into arranged marriages
- For status, financial gain, convenience, children
- Women at the control of their husbands – subservient, housewives,
mothers
- Shakespeare presents a more idealistic view of love
- Courtly love – love was considered more emotional care, than
physical intimacy at this time
Elizabethan era
- High mortality rates at younger ages due to disease and poverty –
affected love
Golden age:
- Evolution of the sonnet
- Era of peace allowed people to become more introspective –
allowing arts to flourish
- Patronage of the arts encouraged the growth of the sonnet
- Elizabeth’s passion for astrology and exploration – explorers used
the stars/north star to navigate
Renaissance
- Poem reflects focus on humanism, emotion and philosophical
contemplation
- Petrarchan sonnet brought to England and evolved to become more
emotional in English literature – Shakespeare made it his own
Alternative interpretations
- Thought to be addressed to an unnamed young man, leading to
theories about the nature of the relationship as platonic or romantic,
and questions about shakespeare’s sexuality
- Feminist perspective – not actually a love of equals, the woman
inferior
- Marxist – the poem is too idealistic, ignoring social realities
Feminist
- On the surface it seems to be a progressive love of equals, the
emphasis on eternal love and guidance conforms to expectations of
women to be loyal, subservient, and aiding of their husband’s
pursuits
, - Common theme in shakespeare’s work - emilia ‘who would not make
their husband a cuckhold to make him a monarch?’
- Expectation of unwavering, eternal love is a patriarchal ignorance of
female agency
- Link to guiding star metaphor
Marxist
- Portrayal of love as a bourgeois ideal, ignoring the economic and
social realities that shaped relationships in this era
- Such as arranged marriages, lack of female autonomy, class,
societal expectations, money
- Link to criticism of marriage
Critical views
- Thomas ledger – ‘like a battered sea-mark which nevertheless rises
above the waves of destruction’ (link to place in collection,
personification)
- Helen vendler – believes the sonnet is ‘impersonal’, just reading as a
definition rather than an experience of love, making it less genuine
than petrarchan sonnets (link to idealised love)
ARWAV
- Lucy and george’s pure love, withstanding time and era
- Equality of their love
- Idealism links to cecil’s idealised view of lucy/love
- Cecils suppression of women vs equality
- Optimism
- Compatibility
Sonnet 116
Form – Shakespearean sonnet, assonance, monosyllabic words, iambic
pentameter
Structure – rhyming final couplet, enjambment, polyptoton
Rhyming final couplet – ‘if this error upon me be proved…’
- Hyperbolic final statement showing his true faith in true love – puts
all his works on the line, coming out of the speaker and speaking as
shakespeare
- Pronouns – personal, emotional
- Rhyming couplets are typical Shakespearean method and represent
a certain, resounding conclusion
- Dissonance – love can be hard
- Caesura – dramatic pause, emotional, passion, persistence of love
- Iambic tetrameter – addresses reality
Language – metaphor of marriage, metaphor of the north star, and
personification
Metaphor of marriage
- ‘marriage of true minds’ – criticises legal union of marriage,
progressive lack of pronouns – love of equals, queer theory may
assert the homosexual undertones
- ‘love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’ - love eludes
definition, the word used too flippantly in society, not a lot of true
love around, reference to a church altar and the convention of
marriage, enduring love, polyptoton and enjambment – smoothness,
lyrical, harmony
Metaphor of north star
- ‘it is the star to every wandering bark’ – the star not a star, devotion
and commitment, realistic not idealistic as love needs direction and
guidance sometimes, empowering and grounding force, metaphor of
ship on waters shows difficulties and ebbing and flowing of love,
virgin mary as biblical star of the sea guiding sailors to safety,
shows fateful and pure love, assonance
Personification
- ‘loves not time’s fool’ – capitalisation shows significance and power,
love is as sure as the passing of time, enduring love that withstands
age, death, time periods and society, typical of Shakespeare’s
sonnets, love is no fool, shouldn’t be mocked by the tool of
marriage, death common
Literary traditions
, - Fair youth collection – sonnets typically positive about love, passion
etc
- 116 sits between 2 more negative poems, about deception and
betrayal, acting as a positive light asserting the beauty of love
- Before dark lady collection, which shows the shift in shakespeare’s
life when he moved to London
Context
16 century marriage
- Marriage was a formal contract, and not between equals – women
forced into arranged marriages
- For status, financial gain, convenience, children
- Women at the control of their husbands – subservient, housewives,
mothers
- Shakespeare presents a more idealistic view of love
- Courtly love – love was considered more emotional care, than
physical intimacy at this time
Elizabethan era
- High mortality rates at younger ages due to disease and poverty –
affected love
Golden age:
- Evolution of the sonnet
- Era of peace allowed people to become more introspective –
allowing arts to flourish
- Patronage of the arts encouraged the growth of the sonnet
- Elizabeth’s passion for astrology and exploration – explorers used
the stars/north star to navigate
Renaissance
- Poem reflects focus on humanism, emotion and philosophical
contemplation
- Petrarchan sonnet brought to England and evolved to become more
emotional in English literature – Shakespeare made it his own
Alternative interpretations
- Thought to be addressed to an unnamed young man, leading to
theories about the nature of the relationship as platonic or romantic,
and questions about shakespeare’s sexuality
- Feminist perspective – not actually a love of equals, the woman
inferior
- Marxist – the poem is too idealistic, ignoring social realities
Feminist
- On the surface it seems to be a progressive love of equals, the
emphasis on eternal love and guidance conforms to expectations of
women to be loyal, subservient, and aiding of their husband’s
pursuits
, - Common theme in shakespeare’s work - emilia ‘who would not make
their husband a cuckhold to make him a monarch?’
- Expectation of unwavering, eternal love is a patriarchal ignorance of
female agency
- Link to guiding star metaphor
Marxist
- Portrayal of love as a bourgeois ideal, ignoring the economic and
social realities that shaped relationships in this era
- Such as arranged marriages, lack of female autonomy, class,
societal expectations, money
- Link to criticism of marriage
Critical views
- Thomas ledger – ‘like a battered sea-mark which nevertheless rises
above the waves of destruction’ (link to place in collection,
personification)
- Helen vendler – believes the sonnet is ‘impersonal’, just reading as a
definition rather than an experience of love, making it less genuine
than petrarchan sonnets (link to idealised love)
ARWAV
- Lucy and george’s pure love, withstanding time and era
- Equality of their love
- Idealism links to cecil’s idealised view of lucy/love
- Cecils suppression of women vs equality
- Optimism
- Compatibility
