Love is a slippery thing. No one can quite nail down the definition of love nor can they explain how we love. Is it a chemical reaction? Or is it a deep spiritual tugging? William Shakespeare tries to explain love in “Sonnet 116” by using negatives to portray the beauty of true love. In the short poem, he shoes that not even the test of time can change love, it does not want to or attempt to change the one being loved, and it does not dwindle, even with the bad moments.
In today’s society, the definition of love is physical attraction. If you find someone who is desirable, then you “love” them. “Sonnet 116” defines a different type of love, a true love.
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 out to the edge of doom: (10-12)
When we are young, we ate beautifully attractive. Our cheeks are pump and rosy and our skin is firm and smooth. It is easy to say that we “love” someone during this time in our lives; in reality, we are making love and attraction synonymous. As time moves on, our plump, rosy cheeks will be replaced with dull, sagging skin. Shakespeare maintains that true love will always think the one loved is beautiful, even when he is old and wrinkly, were as mere attraction will end up being repulsed.
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