Diction in Sonnet 116’s “William Shakespeare”

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 |

Azizatur Rahma

Singgih Daru Kuncara, M. Hum.

English Literature A 2012

June 8, 2014

Diction in Sonnet 116’s “William Shakespeare”

This poem was written by William Shakespeare and was published in 1906. I found several people told me that the diction is hard to be understood. They thought that Shakespeare chose the diction of Sonnet 116 accurately. He used uncommon words to portray love in his poem. Even if he portrayed love used a common word, but his depiction was appropriate with readers’ perspective. But in my perception, actually Shakespeare’s diction was not really hard to be understood. The problem was the blend of the words was unpredictable, and he used several figurative languages. That is why the poem was hard to be understood for the beginner or the people who use English as a second or third language in their state.

In the first quatrain, Shakespeare used the diction which portrayed love as something which cannot be altered. From the first line I see how the author was confused with the couple. We see here, the author use “marriage of true minds” to emphasize his confusion. He did not use “marriage of two couple” but “true minds” to emphasize that the people who married consciously. The couples believe they loved each other when they are married, but they “admit the impediments” (second line) or the obstacle in marriage. I think, the author thought they should not admit the obstacle because they love each other, they realized their marriage, and with love they should not feel it as an obstacle. Besides confusion, the author also disappointed with the couples. That was why the author cut off the word “Admit impediments” from the first sentence into the second line. I think it is also a separation between “marriages of true minds” with “admit impediments” area. The couples who have admitted the obstacle cannot say that they still “marriage of true mind” anymore. The author also united “Admit the impediments” with “love is not love” in the second line. Surely, I think the diction “love is not love” was written to emphasize the characteristic of something which cannot be said as love. That was why an obstacle confession was one of characteristic from something which cannot be said as love. After that the author also wrote another characteristic that something cannot be called as love anymore. They were “which alter when it alteration finds,” and “or bend with the remover to remove”. The
author uses another form from “alter” (verb) to be “alteration” (noun) and also “remover” (noun) to be “remove” (verb). Even though there is another word with had a similarity meaning for alter, such as ‘change’. Here, I think the author does not only consider the context of the sentence in poem, but also to emphasize the literal meaning of ‘alteration’ and does not tolerate any changes which appear in the marriage. The love should not change even if your partner appearances change. Likewise, the fourth lines “or bend with the remover to remove” I think the author want to show the characteristic from “love is not love”.

In second quatrain, I see the author put difference diction. If in the first quatrain, the author used many literal meaning to describe something which could not be called as love. In this quatrain, he put the characteristic of something which could be called as love, but here he used more figurative language to portray what is love. In the first line of second quatrain, the author wrote “Oh, no! it is an ever fixed mark,” the author use “Oh no!” to express his shock about what is love. He put “Oh, no” in the beginning of sentence because I see, the author would give a fabulous portrayal about what is love until the end of quatrain. First, he defined love “is an ever-fixed mark” he portray love is like a lighthouse. If we describe the literal meaning of lighthouse is a tall building by the sea with a flashing light at the top to warn ships of dangerous rocks. Likewise love, the author wanted to describe love as lighthouse which the light could be seen from hundreds of kilometer, which would be a warning to people who felt it, in order to be spared from hazard, because love is like a guide who point the couple to the happiness. After that, the author said “that looks on tempest and is never shaken,” here he used metaphor again to portray what is love. He put “tempest” to portray a storm image, not only a usual storm but the big storm which had huge strength to destroy everything. The “tempest” which would destroy everything which was passed, even could not shake the “love”. In this poem, “love” would not be shaken or destroyed by “tempest”. Here, the author portrayed the power of love, which could not be destroyed by anything. No matter what kinds of problem which attacked the couple, with “love” whole the problem which appeared just nothing. In the next line, the author portrayed “love” is like “the star to every wandering bark”. Depiction of “love” liked star to every wandering bark appeared astray sense. The author brought us in order to feel sailors feeling who lost in the ocean without navigation and they just could see “water” around them. “Love” was likened as a star or constellation which had bright light in the night and could navigate them back to the right direction. After that, the author still described about star he said, “Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken”. The utility of star could not be calculated by number, that was why the author wrote “whose worth’s unknown” even though the height of star could be calculated by science. The word “unknown” here means “priceless” or could not be calculated by anything. It was also the characteristic of love, the sense of love could not be altered by anything. Besides that, I also think “unknown” here was “love” could not be understood easily, even though the couple felt could feel “love” feeling, that was why the author said “although his height be taken”.

In the third quatrain, the author said “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks.” We see here, the author repeated “Love’s not” word at the beginning of sentence. I think, it stressed the theme in this poem about love because actually he has given indication about poem theme in the first quatrain with written “Love is not love”. So, the repeating of “Love’s not” word in the third quatrain signed that it emphasized previous indication. The phrase “Time’s fool” was a kind of personification in this poem. “Time” word was capitalized in the first line, but not in the beginning of the sentence. It was intended the power of “Time” which could change everything. But different with other, “Love” could not be changed by “Time”. Love is always present even if the time elapsed, although the physical was no longer young. In the next line, the author said “Within his bending sickle’s compass come,” here, the author used “bending sickle” to make us imagine or reflect on Grim Reaper and death, which always bring his “sickle” to take human’s life. The author portray “Love” still stand until Grim Reaper came, and also to say that “Love” inevitable from death. “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks” same as with idea of first quatrain, he said again that love would not change, but if in the first quatrain he portrayed love would not change by problem, circumstance and so on. In this quatrain, the author wanted said love would not change by time. That was why the author said “his hours and weeks”. So, love would be permanent like that, would stay after passed a long time journey. In the last line, “But bears it out even to edge of doom,” it portray the couples who loved each other would hold their love until the end of the day. “Doom,” which describe about destruction was intended to let the reader saw the power of love which will stand until the dooms day.

In the couplet, he said that, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” I see, he wanted to satirize that what he has written is right. That was why he wrote “nor no man ever loved,” it meant there was no man ever loved his partner because there is no man has love as Shakespeare’s portrayal. Here, the author wanted to justify his portrayal about love.

In conclusion, we have learned the diction of Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare. We see the author did not only consider the iambic pentameter as one of the sonnet characteristics but also consider the whole meaning of poem. He chose the word correctly so that the reader can feel the sense which was building by him. The diction was really good to portray the characteristic of love with using several figurative languages such as metaphor and personification.