Sonnet 116 discusses love much like
many other sonnets. The difference with this sonnet is the stipulations that
Shakespeare makes regarding love, such as, “Love is not love/Which alters when
it alteration finds.” He goes on to say that love does not change and that is
the only way true love can be. The volta takes place in the last couplet when
Shakespeare, who before had seemed so sure of himself before then writes, “If
this be error and upon me proved,/I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” While
he does still seem sure of himself, these ending lines to me reflect a little
room for doubt as if the whole sonnet had been there to convince Shakespeare
himself that love does not change.
Sonnet
18 had some similarities with 116 in the sense that Shakespeare compares love
to the weather in both sonnets. This tells me that he finds love to be very
powerful and also amongst the most beautiful things in life. And in both of
these sonnets he speaks of beauty not fading and love not changing. It seems
Shakespeare takes importance in things that seem to last.
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