There are three run-on lines, one pair of double-endings. There is nothing recondite, exotic, or metaphysical in the thought. Seventy-five per cent of the words are monosyllables only three contain more syllables than two none belong in any degree to the vocabulary of 'poetic' diction. The details of Sonnet 116 are best described by Tucker Brooke in his acclaimed edition of Shakespeare's poems: the chief pause in sense is after the twelfth line. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes.

Download The Full Text of Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds 1 Let me not to the marriage of true minds 2 Admit impediments. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith. Get LitCharts Get the entire guide to Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds as a printable PDF. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so 'ev'n to the edge of doom', or death. Love's actual worth cannot be known – it remains a mystery. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. ' The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an 'ever-fix'd mark' which will survive any crisis. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not 'alter when it alteration finds. It is praising the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form.

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