Sonnet 116

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S o n n e t 116
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Introduction of Sonnet _____________________
___________Cathy of Shakespeare_____________
_______________Jamie Paraphrase___________________
________________Fransca Vocabulary________________
___________________Cathy Main Idea________________
____________________Glory Structure_______________
______________________Glory Metaphor______________
______________________Baris Conclusion____________
______________________Fransca Reflection__________
__________________________Jamie
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INTRODUCTION
of Sonnets
Original Italian Sonnets are rhymed poems
consisting of fourteen lines, the first eight
making up the octet and the last six lines being
the sestet. The Shakespearean Sonnet (which
differs slightly from the Italian (or
Petrarchian) Sonnet and the Spenserian Sonnet)
end with a rhymed couplet and follows the rhyme
scheme abab cdcd efef gg. Thus, the octet/sestet
structure can be alternatively divided into three
quatrains (sets of four lines) with alternating
rhymes concluding in a rhymed couplet.
Shakespearean Sonnets which consists of 154
sonnets falls into two groups A. 1-126
addressed to a beloved friend. B. 127-154
addressed to a malignant but fascinating Dark
Lady, whom the poet loves in spite of himself.

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INTRODUCTION
of Sonnets
When the sonnet was imported into England from
the Italy, early in the sixteenth century, it was
understood to comprise a set of formal
conventions (fourteen lines of iambic pentameter,
a fixed rhyme scheme) and, of equal importance, a
set of thematic and rhetorical conventions.
Sonnets came in groups, or sequences. They told a
story or rather, they refused to tell a story
outright but were built around a story that took
place in the space between individual lyrics.
(Cited from http//www.theatlantic.com/unbound/po
etry/soundings/shakespeare.htm)
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INTRODUCTION
of Background of Sonnet 116
The story was of love -- love unrequited, love
requited but unfulfilled, love so fleetingly
fulfilled as merely to make suffering keener,
love thwarted by the beloved's absence, or
aloofness, or prior possession by another.
Impediment was as central to the sonnet as was
love. Impediment produced the lyric voice.
Without impediment, the lover would have no need
to resort to poetry he would have something
better to do.
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INTRODUCTION
of Shakespeare

• 1564 Shakespeare Born
• 1565-1581 1567(?) Richard Burbage, the greatest
  tragedian of the age, who would eventually
  portray Hamlet, Lear, Othello and all
  Shakespeare's great parts born
• 1582 Shakespeare Married
• 1583 Birth of daughter SusannaThe Queen's
  Company is formed in London
• 1585 Birth of twins, Judith and Hamnet
• 1587(?)-1592 Departure from StratfordEstablishme
  nt in London as an actor/playwright
• (The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The
  Taming of the Shrew,Henry VI, 1,2,3Richard III )
• 1593 Preferment sought through aristocratic
  connections - dedicates Venus and Lucrece to
  Henry Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton - possibly
  the youth of the Sonnets (1593 Venus and
  Adonis,Begins writing the Sonnets, probably
  completed by c.1597 or
• earlier, Two Gentlemen of
  Verona,Love's Labour's Lost )

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INTRODUCTION
of Shakespeare
1594 Founding member of the Lord Chamberlain's
Men (1594 The Rape of Lucrece ) 1594-1596 The
Lyrical masterpieces Prosperity and recognition
as the leading London playwright(Midsummer
Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard
IIMerchant of Venice ) 1597-1599 Artistic
Maturity Purchases New Place, Stratford with
other significant investments (Henry IV,1,2, The
Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Much Ado
About Nothing, Henry V, Julius Caesar ) 1600-1608
The Period of the Great Tragedies Problem
Plays (Twelfth Night,,Hamlet,,Troilus
Cressida, Alls Well That Ends WellMeasure for
Measure,Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and
ClepatraCoriolanus, Timon of Athens )
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INTRODUCTION
of Shakespeare
1609-1611 Period of the Romances1609
Publication of the Sonnets (Pericles Prince of
TyreCymbelineThe Winter's TaleThe Tempest
) 1612-1616 Shakespeare probably retires from
London life to StratfordWorks on collaborations
with John Fletcher. March 1616 Shakespeare
apparently ill revises his will April 23, 1616
Shakespeare dies and is burried at Holy trinity
Church, Stratford (Henry VIIIThe Two Noble
KinsmenCardenio )
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Cited from http//www.mddesignworks.com/html/sonn
etdt.html
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PARAPHRASE
Do not let
me accept any difficulties in true love. Love
(which changes when it finds an
alteration in circumstances) is not love. Love
( that bends to forces which intends to remove
it) is not true love. Oh no! true love is a
fixed mark (that sees storms but is never shaken
by the storm0It love is the guiding star to
every lost shipthe value of the star may not be
calculated, but its height can be used to find
directions. Love is not at the mercy of Time
(love cannot be fooled by time), though peoples
youth and beauty (rosy lips and cheeks) come
within the influence of time (that our youth and
beauty are harvest by Time's sickle) . Love
does not alter with hours and weeks. But, rather,
it endures until the end of the
world. If I am proved wrong about these
thoughts on love, then I recant all
that I have written,
and no man has ever really loved.
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VOCABULARY
1.Words about difficulty --impediment hindrance,
obstruction, lisp or stammer Ex. There are
many impediments that we cant pass through the
narrow street. --bends yields, changes
direction, is untrue and inconstant towards a
loved one. Ex. He didnt bend any objection
of the discussion --tempests big storm with
heavy raining. (That looks on tempests---because
of their height, the sea-marks would appear to be
looking down on the world below, and almost
riding above the tempests. Because of their
solidity storms had no effect on them.) Ex.
The tempest destroyed all the property of the
town last night.      .
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VOCABULARY
--remover to make oneself different in
accordance with the changes in the other person.
( In this context, the word remove has a rather
indefinite meaning, suggestive of moving
something or someone out of the way, possibly
even suggestive of subterfuge.) Ex. Tom is a
remover who always change his ideas 2.Words
about true love --ever-fixed mark a sea mark, a
prominent navigational feature, a beacon, for
guidance of shipping. (permanent and unshakeable,
a guide to the storm tossed mariner.) Ex.
There are many ever-fixed marks on the sea in
order to give attention to every
navigator. --wandering bark ship or boat that is
wandering and possibly lost. (It can
identify its position by reference to the Pole
star.) Ex. People have wandering
bark of fire on the ship
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VOCABULARY
     3.Words about time --sickle a tool which is
for cutting grain, thing like this. ( It
describes Time) Ex. Farmers use sickles to
harvesting straws. --doom the last day, the day
of judgement, the day of death. (It means a
persons death, as it still does in the phrase,
to meet ones doom or can be applied to the day
of the Last Judgement, or the judgement itself.)
Ex. Tomorrow will be a doom that I need to
hand in all the assignments which I havent
finished yet his Times. (all life is fleeting,
and human life is measured by the brief hours and
weeks of experience compare with the eternity of
love, any unit of time is short) Ex. We
should value his (times)life.
Cited fromhttp//www.shakespear
es-sonnets.com/116comm.htm
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Main Idea
Shakespeare's sonnets are
concerned with love, beauty, poetry, and,
perhaps most pervasively, on the force
that the passage of time exerts upon all three.
In this Sonnet, the narrator tells the young
man addressed in this piece that Loves not
times fool. Although covering a broad range of
topics and narrative situations, it is the human
capacity to adapt to the force of time brief
hours and weeks, of the seasons of human
life looks on tempests / the edge of doom,
that constituted the thematic core of
the sonnets.
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STRUCTURE

• 1. Love is constant and strong (The first
  quatrain)
• 2. Love will survive any crisis, loves actual
  worth cannot be known.( The second quatrain)
• ?3. Love is stable throughout any changes. ( The
  third quatrain)
• ? ?4. The poet stands firmly of his judgment.(
  The final couplet )

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STRUCTURE
The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure
in love that is constant and strong, and will not
"alter when it alteration finds". The following
lines proclaim that true love is indeed an
"ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis.
But this is not all the definitions of love, in
lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to
measure love to some degree, but this does not
mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth
cannot be known -- it remains a mystery. The
remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12),
reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is
unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n
to the edge of doom", or death. In the final
couplet, the poet declares that, if he is
mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of
perfect love, then he must take back all his
writings on love, truth, and faith.
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METAPHOR
1.   ever-fixed mark permanent and
unshakeable, always there as a
guide to the storm tossed mariner.
2.    marriage of true minds true means
constant, faithful, unchanging,
truthful and this suggests a union that is
non-physical, Platonic and idealistic.
 The language draws us to think about the
marriage service and that is a ceremony
designed specifically to marry two people,
not two abstract Platonic ideals which have
decided to be wed. 3.   compass scope,
the arc of the circle created by
the sweep of the sickle. Referring to the
previous lines, time, with his sickle,
sweeps down the mortal lovers,
the rosy lips and cheeks, as if they were
blades of grass.     4.    his all life is
fleeting, and human life is measured by the
brief hours and weeks of
experience. In comparison with the
eternity of love, any unit of time is short.
5.    rosy lips and cheeks all mortal beauty
but especially between
lovers. They are cut down by Times sickle.
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METAPHOR
6.   Times fool, bending sickles compass,
brief hours and weeks, the edge of doom all of
these words are related to the time. Time
is the most frequently repeated concept and
image in the Sonnets. This is the pervasive
Renaissance theme of mutability, and
the poet presents various ways to defy Time.
--- Times fool in terms of the fool employed
in large establishments by the nobility, a
favoured character whose
writing enlivened many a dull day.   ---
bending sickle an agricultural implement
consisting of a hook-shaped metal blade with a
short handle fitted on a tang. Bending means
1) curved 2)
causing the grass that it cuts to bend and bow
3) cutting a curved swathe in
the grass.
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METAPHOR
In this sonnet, the bending sickle implies
the Time is flying so fast similar to
cutting the grass with the bending sickle. But
only difference is that time is cutting away
peoples beauty and youth. 7. star it lights in
the high clear-dark sky. The star implies love
can guide every lost ship and find the right
direction, so they wont get lost or separate
from love.
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Conclusion
This sonnet is mainly about love of true minds,
which means true love. The poet first told us
what true love is not, and then explained what
true love is, after this he expressed his
thoughts of the relationship between love and
time. At the last couplet, he wrote, If this be
error, and upon on me proved. I never writ, nor
no man ever lovd In fact, Shakespeare had many
works, which means the poet stand firmly about
his definitions. We could see how Shakespeare
well used these 14 lines.
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REFLECTION
During working on the report, we read many
passage in the website, some said this sonnet was
written to a beloved young man, but we think if
love is as what Shakespeare said, there should
not be any sexual differences. Also, the
Shakespeare language is hard to understand at
first, but once you understand it, youll find it
a very beautiful language. We most impressed by
the last couplet, it is amazing how much
persuasion he has and his position stand firmly
and clearly that people dont feel any
uncomfortable.
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(No Transcript)
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THE END