“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare, 1609; p 590

 

Written in the same form as “Sonnet 29,” “Sonnet 116” relates a tale of everlasting love. You may be thinking, “Ashley, this contradicts the rest of the anthology because it does not allow for individuality in heartbreak and conditional love;” and although this may seem true, allow me to share my reason for its inclusion anyways. I do not think Shakespeare intended for his audience to take this sonnet as a forbiddance of splitting up with your lover but of knowing your worth. When we know our worth and find someone who appreciates it unconditionally, there is no condition in which love will not come out on top. In other words, if the person you truly love does something to kill that trust or affection, it wasn’t the true love we are all put on earth to find and cherish. True love defies all odds and stands strong through difficulties. As a side note, I immediately added this poem to my wedding Pinterest board (we all have one, admit it) after reading it:

      “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.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

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.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.”