The Conflict of Love and Time

“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!)