Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 Is Not What It Seems

Summary by Krater

An analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, examining its poetic structure, ambiguities, and how it challenges romantic clichés about love's permanence.

From the video

Answers: What does Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 actually mean?

• Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 analysis
• poetic structure of sonnets
• ambiguity in poetry
• romantic love permanence
• Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme

What it concludes

• Sonnet 116 is deliberately designed to give the impression of understanding while remaining slippery and strange.
• The first quatrain of Sonnet 116 is entirely and radically abstract.
• Sonnet 116 is invaded by negatives, functioning like weeds sprouting in a flower bed.
• Shakespeare undermines easy assumptions about love by presenting a speaker who desperately tries to convince himself that love is different from everything else in the ephemeral universe.