4th Quarter English Notes

**Cassandra** Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:13 pm

A Guide to Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Let me not

- Whatever else I agree to, I will not concede that, etc.
- I will not be forced to admit that
- love can surmount all these obstacles, that although nothing can last forever, yet true love can last and hold out until the final reckoning

the marriage of true minds

- union that is non-physical

true

- constant, faithful, unchanging, truthful

Admit impediments

- accept, agree that there are
- allow to enter or to intrude
- taken to be a clear reference to the marriage ceremony, when the officiating clergyman proclaims: 'I require and charge you, as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you do know any impediment why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, that ye confess it.‘
- Connect marriage and impediments

Love is not love

- that sort of love is not true love

Which alters when it alteration finds

- changes (ceases, becomes unfaithful, becomes less) when it finds a change in the beloved, or a change in circumstances

Or bends with the remover to remove

- Bends: yields, changes direction
- The remover: who moves, one who shifts his ground, one who changes himself
- To remove: to make oneself different in accordance with the changes in the other person

an ever-fixed mark

- mark, a prominent navigational feature, a beacon, for guidance of shipping
- Lighthouse, tower, bell of the church, etc.
- Mostly sailors were highly dependent on local knowledge
- The point of the metaphor here is that the ever-fixed mark is permanent and unshakable, always there as a guide to the storm tossed mariner

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

- 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

It is the star to every wandering bark

- The North Star when you are lost
- In the Northern hemisphere it always appears to be unmoving in the Northern sky
- wandering bark: ship or boat that is wandering and possibly lost, which can identify its position through the North Star

Whose worth's unknown

- the true nature and value of which is unknown
- During Shakespeare’s time, they did not know of stars (what they were made of and how they came to existence)

although his height be taken

- although its angle of elevation above the horizon could be measured
- The height of the Pole star above the horizon at its zenith was a guide to the ship's latitude

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

- Time's fool: In Shakespeare's day readers would probably understand this in terms of the fool employed in large establishments by the nobility, a favored character whose wit enlivened many a dull day
- rosy lips and cheeks: symbolic of all mortal beauty, but especially between lovers
- (when you’re rosy you’re alive, mortal — blood runs through your veins)

Within his bending sickle's compass come

- bending sickle: the sickle has a curved blade; causing the grass that it cuts to bend and bow
- compass: scope, the arc of the circle created by the sweep of the sickle
- with a reference back to the nautical metaphors of the previous lines= Time, with his sickle, sweeps down the mortal lovers (the rosy lips and cheeks), as if they were blades of grass

Thank you to Ms. Tasha for providing us with a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that she made regarding Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare.

What you see above is what is in the PowerPoint presentation itself.

No more, No less.

**Cassandra** Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:48 pm

Microsoft Word Document: Notes on Literary Criticism and Its Theories

Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation: Notes on Literary Criticism and Its Theories

The link that has been provided will enable you to download our notes on Literary Criticism & Its Theories as prepared by Ms. Natasha Kintanar. The PowerPoint Presentation is the same one as what Ms. Tasha showed us. The Microsoft Word Document contains the same information as well but has been formatted by me. You may choose to download whichever you want. Like a Star @ heaven

4th Quarter English Notes

4th Quarter English Notes

Literary Criticism & Theories