True Love in Light of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

In light of a previous blog post, I thought it only right that I now admit my deep love of Shakespeare's sonnets. There is one especially that I cannot stop reading and learning from. Though Shakespeare was not the greatest husband in history and could probably have learned from his own words more, Sonnet 116 is one of the greatest expositions on true love in history, in my opinion. His words about true love can be held in amazing and stark contrast to culture's words on the subject and are therefore all the more needed in society. As a result, I wanted to share them with you here. However, since I understand from many of my schoolmates that Shakespeare can be a little hard to understand, I am also attaching a paraphrased version that I found online which might help you to catch his meaning a little more clearly. I hope you enjoy it! I certainly do.

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-fixéd mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering 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.

Here is also a clip from the movie "Sense and Sensibility" in which Marianne recites this very sonnet after her own love and trust has been betrayed by Willoughby.