In "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare, love brings about powerful emotion and never dies. "love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds,"(Shakespeare). These two lines imply how strong love is, and its ability to survive strife. If I, as an individual, let problems corrupt my love, I do not truly understand love anyway. The Bible reaffirms these concepts in " . . . it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves"(First Corithians 13. 5c-7) This agape love binds people in union. The passion of the narrator is demonstrated, and opens my eyes to the love inside me. The sonnet defines an everlasting love that survives to the edge of doom.Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 compels spirit of my heart to feel the depth of love.
The criticism by Peter M. Daly, "A Note on Sonnet 116: A Case of Emblematic Association" in the Shakespeare Quarterly talks about alterations and compass. Daly states how the alteration represents the betrayal of the narrator's love, or a physical change. The love still exists throughout eternity. The compass is interpreted as a geometric compass used for location. This acts to steady the journey between the two lovers. "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle's compass come," I envision the Grim Reaper failing to disturb this true love every man and woman hopes for. The next two lines express how love does not change from day to day or by the hour, but how it grows stronger and lasts till the edge of destruction. The love in this sonnet is the narrator's only concern at the time, and his beliefs are shown in "If this be and error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved."His challenge is not to prove him wrong, but to ask myself what is love to me? The poem is consistent throughout and supports its case. After reading Shakespeare I think of love, yet during the reading of Marvell I recall past loves of mine who still hold a special piece of my heart.
Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 116" Study guide. English 1102.044, University of South Florida. G. R. Lucas. Tampa, FL, 1996