 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about the poem Sonnet 116, Let Me Not to the Marriage by William Shakespeare. I'll explain the meaning related to this poem as it appears in part 3 of the Pearson-Edexcel International GCSE anthology. Now do bear in mind that in contrast to part 1 of the anthology, which featured only non-fiction texts and part 2 which was a mix of fiction short stories and poems, part 3 of this anthology exclusively features poems alone so in this video I'll highlight key language and literary devices used in the poem and you'll learn how to analyse it. So let's get started. Now do bear in mind first off that a sonnet is essentially a traditional love poem and it has a very particular structure. It's a 14 line single stanza which consists of a love poem, it talks about love. So what I'll do is I'll read through the sonnet and then afterwards I will highlight important techniques that you need to be aware of. So let's begin. Let me not to the marriage of true minds, admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when an alteration finds or bends with a remover to remove. Oh no. It's an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken. It is the start to every wandering bark whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not the time's fall, the 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. Now as I've mentioned, this poem is a sonnet and it's about love and of course I'm going to go through what Shakespeare's message is when it comes to true loves. Now let's focus on the title itself, sonnet 116. Now do bear in mind that the full title is Sonnet 116, let me not to the marriage of true minds. Now this is repeated in line one of the poem. Let me not to the marriage of true minds. And this then is further emphasised to admit impediments. Now this opening declarative statement in this sonnet is essentially saying that there's no reason why two people in love should not be together, neither should they not marry. Moreover, the use of the first person pronoun here emphasises that it's the speaker's own perspective and we can assume perhaps that the speaker is Shakespeare himself. Furthermore, the use of the alliteration, marriage and minds emphasises the importance of this union between two people who are truly in love. Now do bear in mind that this sonnet has a very particular rhyme scheme. It has an A, B, A, B rhyme scheme in the first four lines, then C, D, C, D in the following lines, E, F, E, F and then it ends with G, G. Do bear in mind that it has a very, very particular Shakespearean rhyme scheme. Now in line two, after admit impediments, love is not love. Now this is repeated and this repetition of the word love emphasises that if love can change, then it's not really true authentic love. Now the speaker continues, love is not love which alters when an alteration finds. Now again, there's assonance here, alters and alteration, the idea that actually if love can alter if it can change, then it's not really genuine. Moreover, in line four, it bends with the remover to remove. Now the personification of love here again shows that if love is fickle enough to bend or to change, then it's not really true love. Now the reference to the remover to remove. This is a euphemism for somebody who's unfaithful. Now what the message here is, is that love should stand firm in spite of infidelity. In other words, if somebody within the marriage or the relationship cheats, the other person who has been cheated on should still stay around and forgive, otherwise this is not real love. Now in line five, oh no, it's never fixed mark. So here the caesura is a pause. It creates pause for reflection. It's the speaker's way of further emphasise and no, it should stay fixed. Moreover, this is further emphasised through the statement, it's a never fixed mark. Now this is a metaphor which emphasises that love should almost be constant like a lighthouse in a raging storm. The storm is raging all around it, but it stands firm and unchanging. Moreover, in line six, there's a mention of this ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and this personification shows that love should not be able to be defeated by the storms of life. The lighthouse, for instance, stands near an ocean. It's never defeated, it's never toppled by a raging storm. It stands still and of course love should be similar. Moreover, in the following line, it's the star to every wonder in bark and what this is is a metaphor. Love should almost be seen as a guiding north star for all lovers like ships following a star. So bear in mind that the star to every wonder in bark is basically saying like ships following a star. Now in line nine, love's not time's fault. Now time is actually capitalised here and it's also personified to give it power and show its importance in aging and death. And actually love should not be a fall of time. It should not be changed or manipulated with time. If people get old, even if they die, the other person should still stay in love. The love should hold in spite of all of these changes with time. Moreover, the reference to rosy lips and cheeks. Now this belongs to semantic field of body parts and it eludes the superficial side of youthful beauty. And love should not change even if, for example, the woman or the man gets old, they get frail, fragile and they lose their beauty. Love should still stay constant. Now in line 10, within his bending sickles compass. Now the bending sickle and his is referring to the grim reaper. The grim reaper that comes to all of us to take us away once we die. Moreover, the reference to compass come. This further emphasises through alliteration that the grim reaper is going to come but actually love should still stay in spite and after death. Now the statement, love alters not his brief hours and weeks. Now this lexus of time, the language of time shows that love must grow rather than diminish with the passage of time. Moreover, it bears it out even to the edge of doom. Now what this shows is that love must last till death, otherwise it's not authentic. Now the conditional clause, if this error upon me be proved, this is a speaker's way of saying, if I am wrong and if I've made a mistake with my assumptions about love, then I don't think anybody is ever loved. Now this is further emphasised when the speaker states if this be error and this is basically the speaker stating if I am wrong, then they end, nor no man ever loved. In other words, what Shakespeare or the narrator is stating is that if what he says is wrong, that nobody is ever truly loved. Now this is ironic when we think about the context in which Shakespeare wrote this because Shakespeare himself was famously known as unhappily married to his wife Anne Hathaway. So again here, there's some kind of irony because he's making a very large and vast universal statement, but he himself was always unhappily married to his wife. So that's all. If you found this video useful, we do have an in-depth extensive course covering all the IGCSE poetry in this anthology, including all the texts and poems in parts one, two and three of this anthology. So do make sure you sign up for this course for explanations on all the texts as well as model answers. Also check out our website, which is www.firstreadteachers.com where you can find plenty of English revision worksheets, model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including Edexcel, AQA and IGCSE. Thanks so much for watching.