Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 is part of a series of 154 sonnets, whose primary source is a quarto published in 1609 titled “Shake-speare’s Sonnets”.

William Shakespeare was born on 15 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and he died on 23 April 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, at the age of 52.

Playwright, poet, and actor, Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. His works include some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 long narrative poems. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (or romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

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Posted: 14 February 2023
Word length: 98
Video length: 1:45

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.

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