Sonnet CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O, no! it is an ever-fixed 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 cheeksWithin 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 prov’d,I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
Words in this poem
- remover n.
- One who removes; as, a remover of landmarks.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet CXVI is in the public domain. This text is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #1041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI, in The Sonnets (1609), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shakespeare-sonnets/sonnet-116.html, id L00134.
Form and metre
Sonnet CXVI is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG mindsA · loveB · findsA · removeB · markC · shakenD · barkC · takenD · cheeksE · comeF · weeksE · doomF · prov'dG · lov'dG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let me not to the marriage of true minds | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Admit impediments. Love is not love | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘···· |
| Which alters when it alteration finds, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Or bends with the remover to remove: | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| That looks on tempests and is never shaken; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| It is the star to every wandering bark, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Within his bending sickle’s compass come; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| But bears it out even to the edge of doom. | 10 | ····/····· |
| If this be error and upon me prov’d, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.