“Let me not to the marriage of two
minds admit impediment,” starts Shakespeare’s famous love sonnet. Through
symbolism and personification, this sonnet dives into the very essence of what
love is and what it is not to give us insight on how to conduct relations of
any kind. While Shakespeare uses the symbolism of a lighthouse to portray the
strand of guidance to define love, the personification of Love and Time is much
more interesting because it utilizes the binary of eternity and temporary,
along with the strand of destiny, to reveal the differences between love and
infatuation and the question whether we are authoritative or victimized by
predestination.
The strand of guidance which supports
the symbolism of how love is like a lighthouse reveals the hope that love is
truly something that’s unshakable. For example, certain words the poet uses in
the passage [“Ever fixed”(5), “Tempest”(6)] paired up with the line, “It is the
star to every wandering bark”(7) and, “the edge of doom”(12) creates not only a
description of a lighthouse, but also a feel of being at sea and relying on the
light from the shore to guide one’s way. This might imply that true love is not
blind, but actually a guiding light, which is interesting because the poet
seems to be writing a warning at the beginning of the poem of what love is not,
changing, bending, and then goes into how love is a guiding, solid force. So, is
it true love or infatuation that is really blind? The personal implications to
this idea are interesting because they seem to not only lay down what love is
not, but also sets a standard for what love actually is.
Through the personification of time,
the binary of eternity and temporary reveals the distinction of love and
infatuation, which is fascinating because when the strand of eternity is paired
with the strand of destiny, it seems like it is making an argument for
predestinated love. For example, the writer uses key phrases like, “Bares out”
(12), “Ever fixed mark” (5), and “not Time’s fool” (9), to illustrate the idea
of eternity. To support the idea of the temporary, the writer also uses the
phrases, “Alters” (3), “Bends with the remover to remove” (4), and “[Time’s]
bending sickle comes” (10). Additionally, the idea of destiny is directly
supported by the strand of eternity as well as the phrase, “the star to every
wandering bark” (7) and “not Time’s fool” (9). What is interesting about the
strand of destiny is the evidence is indirectly laced through the poem; this
strand relies on the idea of eternity to provide for its platform. When
personification of Time and Love is used, the phrase, “Love is not Time’s fool”
(9), it gives the impression that Love is older than Time. This use of personification
could mean that love is the final product of the trials of Time, or that Love
cannot be touched by Time and has always meant to last. The question is, should
we discriminate between what we feel is true love and seek relationships that
will last, or should we put investment into the things we have now and make
them last? This passage could support the idea of predestinated love, or it
could be a challenge and a warning to hold onto what we have and make our lives
resilient against Time’s bending sickle.
Through the literary techniques of
symbolism and personification, the poet seems to be arguing for a deeper
analysis of the source of love, which critiques the simplistic, polarized view
that love is either predestined or a product of time. On one side, the view
that love is a product of time is supported by the personification of Time as a
reaper of beauty and shallow attractions. On the other side, the idea of
predestined love is supported by the personification of Love, as being an
elder, wiser companion of Time. The poem supports both sides of the origin of
love; however, one has to assume that both ideas are truly separate and not
halves of the same idea.
(Note to my readers: This is one of my college papers, which was turned in on www.turnitin.com. If you find yourself in need of a paper for your English II class, please do not use this particular paper, you WILL be caught and WILL be expelled from school. If you'd like to get in touch with me about YOUR paper, I would be more than happy to talk with you. Please email me at lflames570@yahoo.com!)
