The Complete Guide to Sonnet 116
Fourteen lines that refuse to move — the whole argument, told properly.
Introduction
- The poem that stands up in church — What Sonnet 116 is, and why it never sits down
- The man, the book, the misprint — Where this poem comes from
The world behind the poem
- A church, a charge, and an interruption — The Book of Common Prayer inside line one
- Steering by a star — The Elizabethan sea, and why the poem's imagery is technical
Through the poem
- Lines 1–4 — the interruption — ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds…’
- Lines 5–8 — the seamark and the star — The only ‘is’ in the poem
- Lines 9–12 — Time's sickle — The strongest enemy, conceded almost everything
- Lines 13–14 — the wager — ‘If this be error and upon me proved…’
The speaker & voices
- The definer — A voice study — who is this, and can we trust him?
The writer's craft
- Form, metre and sound — How fourteen lines perform constancy — and where they tremble
Interpretations
- Proof or performance? — The debates a Grade 9 essay keeps open
The examination
- The conversations — Choosing and using the partner poems
- Forty minutes, thirty marks — Taking Sonnet 116 into Section B