Technical Terms or Literary Devices used in Sonnet 116
Structure
Sonnet 116 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form abab cdcd efef gg and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions.
Metaphors:
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary Metaphor, “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)”
Examples from Sonnet 116
F Let me not to the marriage of true minds
F no! it is an ever-fixed mark
F It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Personification:
Personification is a figurative device in which human attributes or feelings are given to an inanimate object or thing as if it were human.
Examples from Sonnet:
F Admit impediments. Love is not love
F Which alters when it alteration finds,
F Or bends with the remover to remove.
F That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
F Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
F Within his bending sickle's compass come;
F Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
F But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom.
Polyptoton is a figure of speech that involves the repetition of words derived from the same root (such as "blood" and "bleed")
Examples from Sonnet 116
F Which alters when it alteration finds,
F Or bends with the remover to remove.
Symbols
Symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks, locations, or abstract ideas to represent something beyond the literal meaning.
Mark= symbolic of a seamark, i.e. a beacon or lighthouse. These structures serve to warn sailors to avoid certain areas filled with reefs or rocky outcroppings on which they might run aground.
Symbols for positive forces that guide people through the dark and difficult patches of their life, showing them dangers they might not otherwise see.
By associating love with such marks, then, the poem argues that love itself is a solid, guiding force in people's lives.
Star: sailors used stars to help them navigate.
Sickle: symbol of mortality
Hyperbole:
A figure of speech which contains an exaggeration for emphasis. Example ‘I haven’t seen you for ages’
Examples from sonnet 116
it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Consonance:
Consonance is a literary device that refers to the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text.
Examples from sonnet 166
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.
Enjambment:
Enjambment is a literary device in which a line of poetry carries its idea or thought over to the next line without a grammatical pause
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
End-stopped Lines:
A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break—such as a dash or closing parenthesis—or with punctuation such as a colon, a semicolon, or a period.
Example from Poem:
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
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.
etc
Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or stressed syllables.
Examples from poem:
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 prov'd,
I never writ,// nor no man ever lov'd.
Caesura
A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash.
F Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.// Love is not love
F no!// it is an ever-fixed mark
F Whose worth's unknown,// although his height be taken.
F Love's not Time's fool,// though rosy lips and cheeks
F I never writ,// nor no man ever lov'd.
