Perspectives

Literary period

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” was probably written sometime between 1590 and 1609. It therefore dates from the early modern period of English literature, which has been important in forming…

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Textual perspective

“Sonnet 116” shares various features with other sonnets by Shakespeare. Both “Sonnet 116” and “Sonnet 130” use the technique of comparing the subject to something it is not to create an image of the subject. 

For example, in “Sonnet 130”, Shakespeare writes: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red.” (ll. 1-2). In this poem, the speaker suggests that typical poetic comparisons do not do justice to his mistress’ beauty. “Sonnet 116” uses a similar technique of setting up negative comparisons: “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.” (ll. 2-4)

The theme of time is referenced in both “Sonnet 116” and “Sonnet 18”. In “Sonnet 116”, the speaker suggests that even though lovers inevitably die, their love will last forever: “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.” (ll. 9-12). 

In “Sonnet 18”, the speaker argues “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, / When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.” (ll. 11-12). The speaker suggests that even though the subject will age and die, he will be made immortal by the spe…