Sonnet no.116

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.

      – William Shakespeare

Alliteration:

Let me not to the marriage  of true minds – m

Or bends with the remover  to remove – r

Within his bending sickle’s compass   come – c

I never writ, nor no  man ever lov’d – n

Allusion:

It is the star to every   wand’ring bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although   his height be taken

The north star which does not   alter it’s position. It is used as a guide for wandering ships.

Metaphor

O, no! it is an ever-fixed   mark

It is the star to every   wand’ring bark

Love’s not Time’s fool,   though rosy lips and cheeks

Repetition:

Admit impediments. Love  is not love

Rhyme

abac – minds, finds ;

abab – Mark, bark ; shaken, taken   ; cheeks, weeks; come, doom;

aa – Prov’d, lov’d;