Sonnet 116

by William Shakespeare

AP/H English 12Dercher• Mini – Read

• Reading Indicators

R.1.3.4

R.1.4.5

R.1.4.10

R.1.4.11. + h.s.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not loveAdmit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds,Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.Or bends with the remover to remove.

55 Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.That looks on tempests and is never shaken. It is the star to every wandering bark,It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheekscheeks

1010 Within his bending sickle’s compass come. Within his bending sickle’s compass come. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

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

Shakespearean Sonnet (English Sonnet) Format Requirements

• Fourteen Lines Long

• Iambic pentameter (unstressed stressed)

• abab cdcd efef gg rhyme pattern

• Three quatrains of related ideas or examples

• Ending couplet sums up theme or author’s message.

1. From reading Sonnet 116, one can conclude that Shakespeare’s idea of love involves the premise thata. true love ends when circumstances require that it do sob. people must be close in age to be truly in lovec. real love brings a person, money, fame, and respectd. true love is indifferent to wealth, beauty, age, and circumstance

2. The passage “Love’s not Time’s fool” suggests that lovea. is not deluded by material wealthb. cannot last foreverc. endures the decline of youthd. is strongest when people are young.

3. The couplet at the end of the sonnet functions toa. add a statement of great impact and importanceb. confirm what was said at the beginningc. add a statement of ambiguityd. express the speaker’s sorrow.

• Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole.

4. Which line contains the synecdoche?a. “ Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.”b. “ Oh, no! It is an ever-fixed mark”c. “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle’s compass come”d. “But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”

5. Where is there an allusion to the medieval image of time as the “Grim Reaper”?a. “It is the star to every wandering bark.”b. “Within his bending sickle’s compass come.”c. “But bears it out even to the edge of doom”d. “I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”