SONNETS

Last week, I wrote about sonnets. Here is another of my favorites and one of Shakespeare's best. The word 'bark' refers to a ship. The 'ever-fixed (pronounce fixed with two syllables) mark' is a star or planet which sailors use to plot their course. 'Time' refers to Father Time who is always shown carrying a sickle. When reading it, pay more attention to the punctuation than to the line breaks which are based on iambs.







Let me not to the marriage of true minds



Admit impediments. Love is not love



Which alters when it alteration finds,



Or bends with the remover to remove:



O no! it is an ever-fixed mark



That looks on tempests and is never shaken;



It is the star to every wand'ring bark,



Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.



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:




If this be error and upon me proved,



I never writ, nor no man ever loved.