Simple paraphrase of shakespeare's sonnet 116?

Question

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 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.

Answer 1

Isn't Shakespeare GREAT!

Answer 2

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/sonnets/sonnet...

Answer 3

You are lucky that this is one of Shakespeare's worst sonnets, or I would have qualms about doing this.  I will use Q to stand for quatrain.  It is a unit of four lines.  I will denote the final couplet with the letter C.

- Q1: Let me not raise objections to marriage when true love is concerned.  When circumstances are altered, true love does not alter; nor does it remove itself, if what originally attracted it is removed.

- Q2: Oh no!  It is like a lighthouse (ever-fixed mark), which, even in tempests is never shaken.  Indeed, love is like the North Star to wandering seafarers: although it can be used for navigation, it is immeasurably far above us.

- Q3: Love is not subject to time, even though Time's sickle dulls and carves wrinkles rosy lips and cheeks.  Love does not alter with Time's brief hours or weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

- C: If anyone can prove this is mistaken, then I'll eat my hat.

Note: The couplet is a taunting challenge, because this poem is about `ideal love' or `the marriage of true minds;' thus, if anybody argues that Shakespeare is wrong with any example of waning love, he will simply say, no, that is not the marriage of true minds-- you just thought that was love, but it is not.

Does this help?

Answer 4

just do your best to try and translate it into modern English and then paraphrase it yourself.  It's not that hard, it just takes a little getting used to.

Good Luck

Answer 5

hehehe if more people simplified Shakespears language, more people would read his poetry!