LOVE IS NOT LOVE WHICH ALTERS WHEN IT ALTERATION FINDS
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
| SONNET 116 | PARAPHRASE | |
| Let me not to the marriage of true minds | Let me not declare any reasons why two | |
| Admit impediments. Love is not love | True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love | |
| Which alters when it alteration finds, | Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances, | |
| Or bends with the remover to remove: | Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful: | |
| O no! it is an ever-fixed mark | Oh no! it is a lighthouse | |
| That looks on tempests and is never shaken; | That sees storms but it never shaken; | |
| It is the star to every wandering bark, | Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship, | |
| Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. | Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured. | |
| Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks | Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty | |
| Within his bending sickle's compass come: | Comes within the compass of his sickle. | |
| Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, | Love does not alter with hours and weeks, | |
| But bears it out even to the edge of doom. | But, rather, it endures until the last day of life. | |
| If this be error and upon me proved, | If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love | |
| I never writ, nor no man ever loved. | Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved. |
3 comments:
Wonderful!
Does not define marriage as between man and a woman--only two minds is imply. ???? Is it a whacky love?
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To Anon: It is argued that Shakespeare was bisexual :)
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