Sonnet 116 Analysis

In Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare, he talks about love and how it is everlasting. He brings forth this message through the literary devices of metaphor, personification and paradoxes. In his sonnet, he says “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks” Here, he uses metaphor to tell us that love will not diminish over time. Even though we age, love will persist. He also uses personification when he says “Love is not love/which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.” This quote shows that love “alters”, “bends”, and “removes”. This are human qualities which love cannot actually possess. A paradox Shakespeare uses is “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.” This is an absurd statement that may actually turn out to be true. In real life, love may very well persist until death. In Shakespeare’s sonnet, he uses several devices to show how love is deep, rich and everlasting.