Let me Not to the Marriage of True Minds

Chapter Summary

William Shakespeare wrote the poem “Let me not to the Marriage of True Minds". The poet explains his notions about the eternity of true love. The poet used many literary devices to make the poem beautiful like, "marriage and minds" the repeated words with similar consonants. The “remove and remover” used in the fourth line of the poem followed the style of alteration. The poet personified "love and times" in his poem to make understand the eternal power of love. The poet used stars as the metaphor for the poem. He wants to tell that a star that gives directions in the night never fades or removes weather in tempest or any other difficult situations. The poem is written in iambic parameter and the sonnet is called an Elizabethan sonnet.

Why do you think the poet has used so many ‘negatives’ to make his statement?

The poet wrote the poem to explain his notions about love. The poet tries to explain what not love is and in this way, he wants to explain the true definition of love. The poet wants to tell in the very first line of the poem that if anyone finds alteration or wants to remove the love then the love is not true. The poet wants to see true love that is free and has no time bounds. Shakespeare observes the feeling of love from a unique angle. He says that love has no need to be restricted and it is not related to any types of changes. Love never expires on the death of a lover because it is eternal. In the third stanza, the poet explains that love is not dependent on external beauty. External beauty has a particular time bound but love has no time bound. The love has stayed whether lovers are lives or die.

Love is presented as the subject or doer of actions in the poem. Why do you think the poet has used this form rather than involving human agents?

The poet used love as the main theme of the poem and used human agent to make understand the concept of love. The irregular and changeable nature of humans bothered the poet the most. According to the poet, love is eternal and is unchangeable. Humans always find better alterations or want to remove the feelings of love. The poet chooses the theme of love to make them understand the undying quality of love. The poet has a better experience of human frequently changeable nature and that is the reason he chooses human agents for love in his sonnet.

‘Constancy’ is the theme of the poem. Indicate the words and phrases that suggest the theme.

The poet used the word constancy on the matter of relationship. The word is very crucial for maintaining any relationship. The poet used the word as a major theme of the poem to make understand the importance of the word. The poet used many phrases to describe the importance of the word. The expressions, in the second line of the poem the poet, explain that there is no alteration acceptable in love and the line is love is not love which alters. In another line, the poet explains if love bends or anyone wants to remove love then the love is not true. He says that love stays forever like a fixed mark and it is unshakable in any type of disaster. All the lines explain the words perfectly in the poem.

Explain the phrases – (a) his bending sickle’s compass (b) Time’s fool

The poet used the word compass as a symbol of eternal love. The phrase explains the changes in love in different stages. The relationship has to face many types of circumstances during the time of its growth. Man cannot feel true love at the begging period of a relationship, the external beauty is more precious to him. The external beauty of the beloved fades one time and the phrase sickle’s compass is used to understand the eternity of love. Another phrase used to make understand love cannot control the boundary of time. Love can grow in the absence of a lover and it is a never-ending feel.

What does the line ‘I never writ, nor no man ever loved’ imply?

The poem Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds is the hundred sixteen number sonnet of Shakespeare. The poem discussed the notion of love and the poet explains his notions in a negative way. In the whole poem, the poet explains that love should not comprise if it is true. The poet continues his negative tone through the last line of the poem. The last line of the poem is I never writ, nor no man ever loved it means that the poet challenges that if anyone can prove his notion of love wrong he can withdraw or changes whatever he wrote in the poem. The poet is very confident about the feeling and eternity of true love.

Look at some other sonnets and notice the variations in the structure of the sonnet that is possible.

The sonnet is written by William Shakespeare and the sonnet has fourteen lines. The sonnet is divided into three quatrains each quatrain contains four lines. The rhyming sequence of the sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg and most sonnet parameters are the same. The parameter of his most of the sonnets is written in iambic parameters. The other sonnets of Shakespeare like sonnet 130 and sonnet 18 also contain similar styles as the sonnet.

What do you understand by a Sonnet?

The sonnet is a hundred sixteen number sonnet of Shakespeare and the poet celebrates the true feeling of love in the poem. The poet describes true notions of love using human agents. The poet describes that if the lover finds alteration or wants to remove the love then the love is not true. In the whole poem, the poet explains love and at the end of the poem, the poet throws a challenge that if anyone can prove him wrong he will accept it and returns all his written lines.

FAQs

Q1. What is the main message of the poem?

Ans. The poet wants to tell the human being to make consistency in love. True love became the same and consistent throughout the whole period of human life.

Q2. What is the mood of the sonnet?

Ans. The sonnet personifies the time and the love and the sonnet is all about steadfastness and love. The poet’s tone in the sonnet is certain and calms same as the subject.

Q3. What is the imagery of the sonnet?

Ans. The nautical imagery is used by the poet in his sonnet and it builds the image of love like stars guiding the direction of human life. The poet used love as the fixed sign in human life and it is another metaphor in the sonnet.