A LOVE SONNET BY
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The world-famous British poet and
dramatist William Shakespeare was born a trader’s son on April 23, 1564 and believably
died on the same date in 1616.
He had limited formal education not
even up to middle school. But he was a genius, born not only for his own
country and age but for the whole world and for numberless ages.
During a period of 1591-1611 , he
wrote 31 plays and in his whole career about 150 sonnets and some long poems.
The love sonnet given here is
numbered 116.
Love has a several synonyms like: intimacy,
fondness, liking, leaning, affection, devotion, adoration, dedication,
attachment, attraction, etc..
In Shakespeare’s sonnet number 116 which
is given below the theme is ever-lasting true love . lts attachment is constant
and unaffected by time because it is unlike physical beauty which fades.
THE FULL TEXT OF THE SONNET
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-fixèd 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 proved,
I
never writ, nor no man ever loved.
*********
G.R.Kanwal
5th
January 2026
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