Some of you have had trouble creating 'new posts', so feel free to add your explications as 'comments' to this one. I'll pick a couple sample explications, and tomorrow we'll talk about how to write them, in total. (I'm still working on your 'Digging' explications, but I'll have them for you tomorrow.
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Alissa Sage
“Sonnet 116” Poem Explication
The title of William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” gives the reader no clue as to what the poem will be about, except for the fact that it is a Shakespearean sonnet numbered appropriately in the chronology that Shakespeare wrote the poem. The lack of a “specified” title causes the audience to wonder why Shakespeare did not name his sonnet, after all the message in his poem is one so powerful that it is puzzling as to why he did not give his poem a powerful title as well.
In the first quatrain of “Sonnet 116” the speaker states the fact that he will not admit that true marriage (or love) has blemishes or faults. The speaker states that love cannot really be considered love if it changes constantly or “bends” (line 4). The second quatrain goes on to assert the fact that love is permanent and is never destroyed by even the windiest of storms. He compares love to that of a star that doesn’t move, but guides a wandering ship. In the third quatrain the speaker states that love is not dictated by time, and although people change with time, their actual love does not change. Ultimately love will survive even in the hardest of times. The speaker then goes on to say that if his theory can be proved wrong, then he never wrote anything, and he never loved anyone (A clearly sarcastic and ambiguous remark considering the fact that the speaker [most likely Shakespeare] did in fact, write, therefore his theory is true.)
Through the use of interjections and even forms of meter, Shakespeare makes the connotation of his poem clear. Shakespeare establishes a tone that is loaded with conviction even in the very first line of his poem. Sonnet 116 starts out with the speaker exclaiming in the subjunctive mood that he not admit that true love has any impediments. After explaining what these impediments may be, he interjects his own thoughts and says “ O no, it is an ever fixèd mark” (line 5). Shakespeare adds the extra syllable onto the word fixèd not only to fill his iambic pentameter requirements but also rather to emphasize the fact that true love is a sustaining and enduring thing. The speaker presents the beginning of many of the lines in his poem with negations to his point and then addresses these negations. For example: “Love’s not time’s fool/…/Love alters not with brief hours and weeks/ But bears it out ev’n to the edge of doom” (lines 9,11,12). Surfacing above his convicting tone/ attitude, the speaker’s attitude edges on sarcasm in the last (and only) heroic couplet of the poem. The speaker obviously believes his theory to be true because he concludes the poem by saying if someone can prove him wrong then he never “writ, nor no man ever loved” (line 14). This is clearly a means of poetic irony because Shakespeare did in fact write; so consequently true love like the one described in the poem does in fact, exist.
There are three major shifts in “Sonnet 116”, and they occur at the end of each of the three quatrains. The first two shifts between “ Or bends with the remover to remove/ O no, it is an ever fixèd mark” (lines 4,5) and “Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken/ Love’s not time’s fool” (lines 8,9) both have something in common: the shift in tone fluctuates between the speaker praising what love is and condemning what love isn’t. These shifts further illustrate the speaker’s attitude towards the poem by emphasizing the strengths (and weaknesses) of love, and pointing out the fact that love is only love if it is characterized by the strengths of love.
Perhaps Shakespeare did not specifically title his poems for a reason: not titling his poems was a deliberate and specific action in itself. Often a title leads the audience to make assumptions about what the poem is going to be about, and perhaps Shakespeare did not want his reader to make presumptions as to what his poem would be about purely based on the title. Having a neutral title allows the reader to extract the meaning of the poem through the actual body of the words and not just the title.
The theme of “Sonnet 116” is quite obviously true love and its unchanging permanency and durability. Shakespeare isn’t referring to just any kind of life, but love that is bound by “the marriage of true minds” (line 1). Shakespeare evidently addresses the idea that time “alters not with his brief hours and weeks” (line 11), but rather “bears it out ev’n to the edge of doom” (line 12).
Explication: Sonnet 116
Unfortunately in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, the title does not give any clues as to what the poem is about. However, knowing that the poem is a sonnet, the reader can guess that it will be written in iambic pentameter. It is interesting that Shakespeare does not include a more specific title for his poem or give the reader any information about it.
This poem is about how powerful true love really is. The speaker feels very strongly about the subject, saying in lines 13 and 14, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” The speaker uses metaphor in line seven, saying, “[Love] is the star to every wand’ring bark.” This metaphor is used to show the extent of the power of love by comparing it to a star, demonstrating to readers that love can help people find their way. There is also alliteration. An example of the alliteration is in the first two lines, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love…” The repetition is in the “l”, which is the first letter of love, again stressing how important love is. The rhyme scheme in the poem is abab cdcd efef gg. The rhyming makes the poem flow and sound nice, like love. It also connects all the ideas about love, emphasizing to the reader all characteristics that love has and all the characteristics that love does not have.
The attitude toward love is very matter-of-fact, like the speaker knows exactly what love is and isn’t. The speaker never says, “I think”, only things like, “[Love] is an ever-fixéd mark” in line five and “Love’s not time’s fool” in line nine. The tone in the poem seems to be serious and passionate: serious because true love is a serious matter and passionate because the speaker seems to be trying to convince the reader what true love is and that it is real. The speaker describes love and makes it seem like love is great and powerful. The speaker even says in the opening lines of the poem, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments.”
There are three shifts in the poem. In the first four lines the speaker discusses what love is not, saying in lines two and three, “Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds…” In the second four lines the speaker goes on to say what love, in fact, is. The speaker says, “[Love] is the star to every wand’ring bark…” in line seven. Again, in the third four lines the speaker talks about what love is not, saying in line eleven, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks…” In the last two lines there a third shift, where the speaker says how everything he or she has just said is the truth. The theme of this poem is love. The speaker is saying that no matter what, love can conquer all.
“Sonnet 116” Explication
In his “Sonnet 116,” Shakespeare describes the unwavering strength of true love. The title gives minimal information about the poem, telling only the rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg) and meter (iambic pentameter). While it is interesting that Shakespeare did not choose a specific title for his sonnet relating to the content of the poem, this most likely has little to do with the poem and more to do with a lack of motivation or an idea for a title. Each quatrain of the poem describes something that love is or is not, does or does not do. The first describes love’s unbending, unaltering, and ultimately flawless nature, while the second calls love an “ever-fixed mark” (5) and “the star to every wand’ring bark” (7). The third quatrain once again mentions love’s ability to go unchanged despite passing time. The final couplet of the poem seals the rest of the text by acting as an assurance that the author is entirely confident of what he is saying, or he “never writ, nor no man ever loved” (14). It is effective because Shakespeare, clearly, has written, and has most likely loved or would not be able to write so assuredly about love’s nature.
“Sonnet 116” does not have a particularly strong connotation of any kind. It is romantic, but does not quite inspire romantic feelings. The narrator is clearly confident in his opinions, but the confidence is not a feeling that comes with reading the poem. Most of the power in the poem comes from the denotation in Shakespeare’s metaphors, and there is not too much remaining to read between the lines. The attitude is much more distinct; the narrator clearly has extreme faith in love and in his judgement of it. Not only does he refuse to “admit impediments” (2) to love, he also confidently declares that “…Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.” (2-4). In this way, the narrator proclaims his view that there is only one kind of love, for any that does not meet his requirements is in fact not love at all.
There are three main shifts in the poem, one at the end of each quatrain. The first and third quatrains describe what love is not; that is, it does not have impediments, it does not bend, it is “not time’s fool” (9), it “alters not with [time’s] brief hours and weeks” (11). At the end of the first quatrain, however, there is a shift in mood to the second, which tells what love is: “an ever-fixed mark” (5) and “the star to every wand’ring bark” (7). Then, of course, there must be a shift back to the opening tone at the end of the second quatrain. The final shift comes when the narrator switches between the third quatrain and the final couplet from describing the sureness of love to describing his own sureness, as the last two lines serve as a tribute to his reliability on the subject of love.
In the end, the main theme of this poem is relatively straightforward: the endurance of love despite time or other obstacles in its path. The declaration that love lasts “ev’n until the edge of doom” (12) almost suggests that love will be the last thing remaining on Earth, but the rest of the poem only describes its incredible strength without describing its strength relative to other things. It is therefore unclear whether or not Shakespeare actually intends to state that love will outlast everything, or only that it is everlasting among other things.
Ben Tolkin
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is a relatively simple tribute to the power of true love to withstand the changes brought on by time. Shakespeare explains that true love doesn’t change when situations are different or the lovers grow less beautiful, but remains constant forever. He ends with a promise that if he is in error, he has never truly written and no man has ever loved. The sonnet has surprisingly few poetic devices, being very direct and rather simple in its statements that love conquers all. This is probably due to the tight restriction of iambic pentameter. The only metaphors used are that of comparing love to fixed star used for navigation, and references to death’s sickle. The interesting facets of the poem come in the relation between the poem and the poet. It is implied that he has a personal connection with the subject of love, although none is ever stated. However, the tone of the poem is not entirely positive. Shakespeare spends much of the poem explaining that true love does not fade when faced with time, obviously implying that false love does, and subtly implying that he has had experiences with false love. By beginning with “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ admit impediments” (1-2), it almost sounds as if Shakespeare’s audience were expecting him to say otherwise, that true love can be impeded. The tone of conviction without much romanticism makes the sonnet sound almost like an argument, a justification that while love can seem fleeting, this is only confusing fancy with true love. He then spends his second quatrain in a more romantic form, detailing how true love rises above “tempests”. The use of such specific phrases as “brief hours and weeks” (11) would seem unnecessary if the sonnet was only about the positive side of love. There is an important subtext here about the negative side of false love. Shakespeare ends with a curious couplet, shifting tone from the rest of the poem, in which he promises that true love does indeed exist, else he has never written and no man has loved. These should not be taken as literal statements (he’s not saying, ‘because I have written, love must exist’). Rather he’s saying that if true love is just a fantasy, then all of his love poems have been lies, and all those in love are delusional. Thus, the ultimate theme is strong conviction that true love is a more powerful force than time, with subtexts on the danger of false love, perhaps specifically involving the poet.
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