Contraction and Expansion

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Contraction and Expansion

• The Suggestive Potential
• of the Sonnet

2
Remember7 Steps for Discovery

• Language the Literal Level
• Language the Imagistic and Figurative Level
• Poetic Form
• Tone
• Narration
• Allusions, Archetypes, and SymbolsExternal
  References
• The Big Picture

• (word order and denotation)
• (connotations, sensory images, and figurative
  language)
• (meter, rhyme, and rhythm/sound effects/
  traditional forms)
• (attitude of speaker/ implied audience)
• (events and sequence)
• (references to outside events and works of art/
  mythic references/ that which stands for
  something beyond the literal)
• (unifying the analysis performed in the first six
  steps)

3
Sonnet 116 by W. Shakespeare

• 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 wandering bark,
• Whose worths unknown, although his height be
  taken.
• Loves not Times fool, though rosy lips and
  cheeks
• Within his bending sickles 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 proved,
• I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

4
A Closer LookThe First Quatrain

• 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

• 3-Alternating end rhyme iambic pentameter
• 4-Determined, authoritative tone
• 5-Narrator introduces the key theme of love
• 6-Uses the manipulation of tangible objects as a
  symbol of how people act whose love is not true
  (when love isnt true, those involved attempt to
  change one another)
• 7-Delay until the reading is completed

1-Love is dually defined (a) what it does love
refuses to believe any obstacle is too great (b)
what it does not do change its nature due to
external events. 2-Key images marriage, removal
5
A Closer LookThe Second Quatrain

• O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
• That looks on tempests and is never shaken
• It is the star to every wandering bark,
• Whose worths unknown, although his height be
  taken

• 3-Alternating end rhyme iambic pentameter
• 4-Determined, authoritative tone
• 5-Narrator expands on his positive definition
  given in the first stanza
• 6-Weathering the storm symbolizes strength and
  resolve the star is a symbol of guidance,
  endurance, and permanence
• 7-Delay until the reading is completed

1- It can go through storms without being
shaken. It is the north star who guides lost
ships on the sea. 2-Key images strength in the
storm and the guiding star
6
A Closer Look The Third Quatrain

• Loves not Times fool, though rosy lips and
  cheeks
• Within his bending sickles compass come
• Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
• But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

• 2- (continued) In this case, it is coming to
  claim the life of youth and beauty. The fact
  that Love survives this indicates that the
  narrator believes true loves basis does not lie
  in physical attraction, but on some deeper level.
• 3-Alternating end rhyme iambic pentameter
• 4-Powerful tone, even willing to defy Time and
  Death
• 5-Narrator tells of Loves power, outlasting Time
  (a figure often thought of as omnipotent, a power
  that will outlast and destroy all human
  endeavors)
• 6-Rosy lips and cheeks symbolize the beauty of
  youth the sickle is a symbol of death.
• 7-Delay until the reading is completed

1-Even though Time takes away physical beauty, it
is not superior to Love. Love endures Times
passage. 2- Love and Time are personified.
The sickle (a reaping tool) is most frequently
associated with death.
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A Closer LookThe Concluding Couplet

• If this be error and upon me proved,
• I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

• 1- If the narrator (William Shakespeare) can be
  proved wrong, then he never wrote and no man ever
  truly loved
• 2- No key images
• 3- End rhyme iambic pentameter
• 4- Authoritative tone, challenges readers to try
  to prove him wrong
• 5- Narrator uses his final words to highlight the
  conviction he feels regarding his definition of
  Love
• 6- No key symbols
• 7- Review prior notes

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Step 7The Big Picture

• Love is dually defined (a) what it does love
  refuses to believe any obstacle is too great (b)
  what it does not do change its nature due to
  external events.
• Poem follows the form of the English Sonnet
• Tone is authoritative and assertive throughout
• The manipulation of tangible objects is a symbol
  of how people act whose love is not true (when
  love isnt true, those involved attempt to change
  one another)
• Weathering the storm symbolizes strength and
  resolve the star is a symbol of guidance,
  endurance, and permanence

• Even though Time takes away physical beauty, it
  is not superior to Love. Love endures Times
  passage.
• Love and Time are personified. The sickle (a
  reaping tool) is most frequently associated with
  death. In this case, it is coming to claim the
  life of youth and beauty. The fact that Love
  survives this indicates that the narrator
  believes true loves basis does not lie in
  physical attraction, but on some deeper level.
• Narrator tells of Loves power, outlasting Time
  (a figure often thought of as omnipotent, a power
  that will outlast and destroy all human
  endeavors)
• Rosy lips and cheeks symbolize the beauty of
  youth the sickle is a symbol of death.
• If the narrator (William Shakespeare) can be
  proved wrong, then he never wrote and no man ever
  truly loved
• Narrator uses his final words to highlight the
  conviction he feels regarding his definition of
  Love

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Questions Comments

• Is his definition of love accurate?
• Is love of this nature possible?
• Has he ignored any key aspect of love?
• Is there an image or metaphor you believe better
  displays love than the ones he has used?