Love in 'Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds'

William Shakespeare’s poem “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” is a sonnet written in Shakespearean form. The main subject of this poem is love and the central theme is that love bears all. The poem’s setting is in a narrative form whereby the poet-orator is a man who is relating to love with an imperial tone. Judging by the acquaintance the narrator has about love, it is most likely safe to presume that he is an established adult. Right through the poem, the poet-orator confers how true love cannot be altered or have alterations, how it can endure time itself, and how love is comparable to a guide.

The second stanza on the other hand is a quatrain with a rhyme format of cdcd. This stanza encloses an exceptionally clever metaphor, personification and assonance, in stating that love is eternal and capable of being used as a guide in one’s life. The words “bark” and “star” in the seventhth line of the poem include assonance of the “a” reverberation. He uses this assonance so as to bring attention to the allegory/metaphor he is employing, in comparing love to the Star, which is a guide for ships and barks. By following the feelings in their hearts, people can be able to use love as a guide or direct to see them through life. Moreover, the North Star is comparatively permanent, and he feels that love is an “ever-fixed mark” (Schmidt & Crockett, 2008, p. 666). in the poem’s fifth line. Line eight also refers to a star by saying “Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken” (Schmidt & Crockett, 2008, p. 666). Stars have neither ownership nor a set sexual category, therefore this line encloses personification. Shakespeare tells of love as if it were human to put across the importance of it.

Personification, consonance and assonance also help to put the point across that love is not dependent on time. In lines nine and ten, he says “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come” (Schmidt & Crockett, 2008, p. 666). Even though beauty grows fainter with time, love does not. He personifies time to assist in expressing that love does not and will never operate on any definite clock. Shakespeare even capitalizes the word “Time” as if it were an existent person’s name. Shakespeare also personifies death in the ninth line when he refers to the “bending sickle” (Schmidt & Crockett, 2008, p. 666). which would turn out to be the weapon of the notorious Grimm Reaper. Death is capable of taking away physical qualities, save for true love. Assonance is also found in the eleventh line in the words “week” and “brief.” Shakespeare deliberately incorporates this assonance to append to the poem’s rhythm while expressing his view of love as not acquiescent to time or any other given force. The use of the words “bear” and “but” in line twelve is an illustration of alliteration. He uses these illustrations to help articulate that love can endure anything on its own regardless of the pressures and pressures of time.

In line thirteen and fourteen, the poet-orator boasts how convinced he is in his view of love, suggestive of that if his opinion is incorrect, no one has ever fallen in love or loved. The ending rhyme of these two last lines is incline rhyme since “proved” and “loved” fail to rhyme accurately. In the fourteenth line, the poet-orator declares “I never writ, nor no man ever loved” (Schmidt & Crockett, 2008, p. 666). The lexis “never,” “nor” and “no” are examples of alliteration. These pessimistic words are used to reinforce the poet-orator’s conviction of his view of love. The fourteenth line also has inner rhyme. “Never” and “ever” which are placed before the word “loved”. Shakespeare uses this inner rhyme to make it apparent that the orator has full trust in his own words.

Shakespeare’s poem “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” is an outstanding poem. Using several literary techniques, such as personification, metaphors, and internal rhyme, William Shakespeare has produced a masterpiece that depicts love by what it really is and what it is not. Because of the radiant use of techniques and flow in the poem, it will stay put as one of the finest poems yet written.