ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Sonnet 116 is a poem by William Shakespeare. Its primary theme is the constancy of love: the speaker argues that true love does not change even if lovers alter over time. As with almost all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is written in iambic pentameter.

Detailed explanation-2: -Essentially, this sonnet presents the extreme ideal of romantic love: it never changes, it never fades, it outlasts death and admits no flaw. What is more, it insists that this ideal is the only love that can be called “true”-if love is mortal, changing, or impermanent, the speaker writes, then no man ever loved.

Detailed explanation-3: -As a unit of writing, the sonnet has an organic beauty that depends on the balance of symmetrical and asymmetrical form and melody. And historically, sonnets have contained strong themes of love. As a result, Shakespeare uses the sonnet form to highlight his message about his beloved and their magnificent appearance.

Detailed explanation-4: -Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that love hurts. Yet despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue falling in love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable aspect of the human condition-indeed, expressing love is part of what makes us human.

Detailed explanation-5: -Shakespeare begins his sonnets by introducing six of his most important themes-beauty, time, decay, immortality, procreation and selfishness, which are interrelated in sonnet 1 both thematically and through the use of images associated with business or commerce[3].