Shakespear’s opinion on love is steadfast and firm.

Much like the love he talks

about in his sonnet. At the heart of the poem, Shakespear talks about pure,
unadulterated love. The kind of love people write stories about. Shakespeare’s
words set the precedence for millions of poems that talk about love.

Unchanging love is the star of this Shakespearian sonnet. A sonnet being a

fourteen line poem, what makes it Shakespearian is it’s three quatrains and a
couplet. These lines follow an A-B-A-B/ C-D-C-D/ E-F-E-F/ G-G rhyming scheme. The
last qualifier is the volta which is the shift of ideas. It follows the iambic
pentameter, five or ,‘penta’, emphasized beats in each line. It flows like a
heartbeat, fitting for a poem about love.

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:

It begins like an oath, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit
impediments.” Like he’s swearing in front of a judge, “I will not say anything that
impedes on love.” This sentence enjabs the first two lines, breaking the structure.
He continues the thought unimpeded. This break echoes as he writes that love
doesn’t change when everything else around it does. That it doesn’t stray in any
way when there is something, or someone, is planning to remove it. The meter
pattern can also be interpreted as not conforming to the iambic pentameter.

In this first quatrain, Shakespeare’s use of ‘mind’ speaks volumes about his
views on love. He did not use ‘heart’ or ‘soul’. The use of mind may allude to his
notion that it’s not all about feelings, that it should also be a match of wits,
values, and morals. His use of repeating words or polyptotons, like “alters” and
“remove”, drills in the message of steadfastness.

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.
[10:15 AM]
After stating what love is not, Shakespeare goes on to say what love is. That it is
unwavering and always guides you to where you need to be. Themes of seafaring gains
prominence in this part of the poem. The tumultuous and unpredictable sea being a
metaphor for life and its trials and tribulations. And love is the “ever-fixed
mark” and “star”, the two can mean the same thing, both are ways to find safety.
Sailors rely on these fixed stars to navigate deadly waters. Love does the same, it
will always bring you home. It ends with the unfathomable value both love and stars
have. Even if you could measure both. One calculates the physical distance of a
star One could also quantify love by counting how many flowery words your beloved
utters, how many gifts they give, how affectionate they are. These are ways for
“his height be taken” but love is priceless in its “worth’s unknown.”

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.

The volta appears in the third quatrain, shifting from the sea to time. Shakespeare
touches on the ultimate end, death. As well as it’s executioner, time. I find that
love and time have been personified, they’re warring but Shakepeare knows that true
love will always win. Time may take beauty, love cares not, time may bring about
change after change, love cares not. Not even till the very end. A caesura, a break
between thoughts mid line is found in the 9th line. Almost as if one is thinking
about what they’re going to say next. It’s not an enjambment because of the
presence of a comma. This indicates that the reader must pause.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ nor a man ever loved
[10:15 AM]
The couplet harkens back to the oath-like words Shakespeare used at the very
beginning. His statement is hyperbolic. He states that if his words are scrutinized
by a jury, if valid evidence against his notions arise, then he has never written.
Nor has anyone ever loved