Analysis of Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

William Shakespeare 1564 (Stratford-upon-Avon) – 1616 (Stratford-upon-Avon)



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-fixèd 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 proved,
    I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


Scheme ABACDEDEFGFHIJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010111 0101001111 110110101 1110010101 1111110111 1111011010 11011100111 1101111110 1111110101 011101101 11011111001 11111010111 1111000111 1101111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 583
Words 111
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 449
Words per stanza (avg) 109
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

34 sec read
438

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". more…

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    Sonnets were first introduced to England by?
    A Sir Thomas Wyatt
    B William Shakespeare
    C Petrarch
    D William Wordsworth