Conveyance Of The Theme Of Love In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116

Love in its purest form is an indestructible feeling that is unwavering, regardless of constraints. Circumstances both physical and mental will change with time. However, love is unshakable against the time and all presented obstacles it may face. This ideology is the focal message that is portrayed via literary elements in sonnet 116. Theme is the timeless convention of conveying the speaker’s view and meaning of primarily love and life. Shakespeare explores love in the romantic sense, where he focuses on the durability of love. In sonnet 116, Shakespeare proves this theme through the metaphors of a star and beauty, polypopton repetition, and antanaclasis repetition. Metaphor and imagery go hand in hand, and within this sonnet imagery helps illustrate the metaphor’s point of theme. Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 conveys the theme that love is unchanging, and strong enough to endure time within the help of metaphors. The first remarkable metaphor goes as thus, “O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark”. This line paints a nautical scene, portraying love as The North Star. This being the star that is consistent no matter where you are. In these lines it is what is guiding us through a storm at sea. A storm is a force we cannot control like life, but love is always there to guide us if things go awry. For a step further to cement this image of love as a steady force through life is through the physicality of “Rosy lips and cheeks”. In the end of the sonnet love is put to the test against time.

However, “Love is not Time’s fool”. This one line as a whole showcases the theme perfectly, “Love is not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks”. This section explores the reality that the beauty we see of our romantic endeavors will succumb to time, but love surpases “brief hours and weeks”. Love is set out to always be the triumphant advisory against time, this being how it is possible for love to be the unwavering force that it is, regardless of obstacles like time. Love is even so impervious to that of the end of time or death. It is so important to the convention of the meaning that it is reference twice, with “Within his bending sickle's compass come,” and “But bears it out even to the edge of doom”. These two lines share a similar meaning; Love is surpasses death. Line ten shows death through the imagery of a sickle, a sickle being commonly attributed to the grim reaper. Whilst line twelve is more direct with it simply stating that love prevails even after the world ends. For love is not physical like the aforementioned “Rosy lips and cheeks,” it is its own eternal flame that can never be blown out. While line nine hits many literary devices like the previous imagery, it also delves into syntax. There is a noticeable use of polypopton from the poem’s start that contributes to the meaning greatly. Polypopton is the style of repeating the root of a word, but each of these words are still different. The first case of this is “Which alters when it alteration finds,” polpopton is seen with the two word “alters” and “alteration”. Repetition of these two words emphasize that love is not love if it is susceptible to change or “alteration,” this is needed to clear false claims of love that do not fit thematic statement of the poem. It is vital for this to be backed firmly, so the use of polypopton is repeated once more. With “Or bends with the remover to remove,” meaning that if love is to disappears when a lover has left, than it is was never truly love. For love is constant, and if it were to be “remove[d]” or “Alter[ed]” than is was not the deep love the speaker talks of. These two lines start the poem off with clarifications, without these guidelines the message of the poem would be muddied up, and the speaker proven false.

Thereby the application of polypopton is conveying the thematic statement by means of defining it. Following suit with a similar usage and the same literary device of syntax, is antanaclasis. Much like polypopton, antanaclasis is a form of repetition. In its case it is the repetition of the same word or words, but in a different sense. This tactic can be found in the opening lines, with the core focus of the sonnet’s employing of antanaclasis is “Love is not love”. When reading this line it can cause a great deal of confusion due to its paradoxical nature. Presenting the idea that love is not love, which is impossible. However, with further reading on antanaclasis clarifies this line’s meaning. A pattern emerges within the piece with the words ‘love is not,’ the first clear-cut use of this is “Love's not Time's fool”. Line nine’s use of ‘love is not’ is to convey that love faces no sutter against time, demonstrating part of theme. That being that love surpasses all obstacles, that including time. Whilst the next usage of the phrasing is, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks”. It has a similar meaning to like nine, but encapsulates the other part of the theme. Love is constant through time, it never “alters”. The effect of these three lines signifies the theme of love, and what love is. In summary of the poem, it entails that love is essentially immortal. Repetition here builds a sense of perpetuation, where like love, the phrasing repeats itself. However, this repetition does not mean there is an end before it starts it is purely continuous. Looking at the summary of the collective trio, the secondary purpose of antanaclasis in the poem is understood with what is being repeated. Returning to the same point as the polypoptons, to defining what is, or ultimately, what is not love. Via negation the foundation of what is being proclaimed as love is set. These negatives including “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”. If there were no usage of these negatives sculpting the speaker’s definition of love, then the last lines are false, and this is why he attempts to make his definition of love rock solid. He even says that “If this be error,” insinuating that if his description of real love is faulty then it is an error. If it were to be an error, the whole sonnet is meaningless. Yet the last lines in full reads, “If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd”. Meaning that his definition is so concrete that he will always be correct. Finally, the groundwork that he has laid down that is so solid, is founded upon the literary syntax devices of antanaclasis and polypopton. That allows the metaphors and imagery to create the face of love’s defining qualities.

Without these lanuage devices to back is words, the theme is not there to its fullest and can be prosecuted as false. Simply because it is impossible to prove him wrong without saying that Shakespeare has never written, and having to admit that you have never loved. Truly exhibiting how important the language used is to conveying the thematic statement of love being unshakable against the time, and against all hindrances life may throw.