Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 Is Not What It Seems 

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"And we charish the most the things we can lose." So beautifully written. So many lovers forget about it and stop charishing each other as much as when they are in love the first time.

Your point here is why this sonnet's use in Sense & Sensibility is so perfect. Willoughby dumps Marianne for financial security. Their relationship isn't an ever fixed mark. And it's used so beautifully as Marianne grieves what can't be.

I had a phase in high school where I tried to memorize as many sonnets as possible - this was my first memorized and one of the few I still remember over a decade later, it’s a weird thing now that I write it in on the last page of every notebook or notepad I own. Anyway, great video!! :))

It always amazes me how you're able to compress an English Literature lecture into less than eight minutes. Thank you. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi

I wouldn't say there's something sinister about it. He merely points out that there's a big difference between true love and superficial infatuation. He makes it blatantly clear how big the difference really is with some extreme examples. That's how you'll be able to unmistakably tell the difference.

I have always liked seeing "admit" as "introduce" as in a ticket for admission. He is not inventing the impediment... The "remover to remove" is describing a drawing compass, btw. And the star to every wandering bark... which makes you think of a sextant. Both tools are also ways to measure degrees.

Adore waking up, turning on the tv and finding this 10 seconds into its submission, sincerely appreciate all the work you do

"it's his most famous sonnet" uhh "shall i compare thee to a summer's day" is literally the only sonnet that 99% of english speakers have ever heard

Understanding and proving any work as "Not What It Seems" is the coolest thing for anyone studying the arts. Hats off.

As someone who has not had much exposure or interest in art interpretation I really appreciate this clip. It makes me feel inspired to go explore some poems or paintings as if they are a little treasure trove of hidden secrets and meanings to be unearthed. I appreciate your work and sharing your thoughts!

I read this poem as not a man searching or attempting to convince himself that true love is real, but about the abstract, perfect concept of love. Specifically the second quatrain; Shakespeare uses all of these distant objects or immovable concepts to represent love as an ideal that is used by man, but never touched nor obtained in practice. You mention both the references to the mark and the star. Both are important navigation assets to sailors; they quite literally guide men across oceans and seas without ever being able to own either. This is a clever description of the dichotomy of true love; the sonnet states that true love as an ideal is real, but between two people is unfeasible. My point is, your video essays are always enjoyable and this one was both excellent and thought provoking. Now hurry up and get that book to my house ;-).

"Bending sickles" is not a reference to death, as death wields a scythe. Rather, sickles are held by Chronos, the greko/roman god of time.

The beauty of poetry is the various interpretations. The reader does not necessarily need to see something the way the writer did. Language is ambiguous because meaning is personal. We have no control over how others understand us

The first thing that comes to mind is that I can't remember Shakespeare ever using 'admit' to mean 'acknowledge' but usually 'let in'.

I always wonder to what degree one might consider it bravery to confront the impermanence of everything, or differently said, to what degree its naive not to. I used to ponder about the impermanence of everything, but the paradox is that such thought is as futile as it's implications. I, for once, have decided to play along with whatever we might call life, love, free will, feelings or thought - as not doing so provides me with nothing but a sense of unease and meaninglessness. A fictional story can be as meaningful to you as a real one, and as we are clearly unable to distinguish the two for what's considered 'living', I have decided to not care but embrace. That works astonishingly well, despite the fact that it's self-deceptive on some level.

Nerdwriter is the only channel where I like the newly released videos out of support before I even watch it

I have one point of contention. I think he's defining a "true" love. A love that is eternal and everlasting, despite changes or even death. _However_ , if the love that he writes about or the love that people proclaim _isn't_ like this, then it's not really love, in that love doesn't exist on our plane of existence. It's almost like he's saying that we _need another word_ for this temporally-restricted love, since the love we all claim doesn't match what is *"truly love"* .

It is so simple... here the speaker permeates his love for electric vehicles. The soul behind this sonnet is charging his chariot by trailing his behind on his lover's carpet, generating static electricity. Sublime

“Beauty belongs to what is impertinent…” wow. That line has so many applications. Sunsets, youth, rainbows, the list of fleeting beauty is limitless.

I don't really agree with your interpretation (and doubt that Sonnet 116 is the Bard's most famous), but I appreciate the idea of this video, which in any case will be a delight to English teachers everywhere.

"We cherish the most what we might lose" So sad, yet so true.

I know this is the fashionable interpretation. I heard literati saying this only last week on 'In Our time' on BBC Radio 4 (it's on I player. Brilliant. Emma Smith, I think.) The thing is ... I just don't buy it. I don't see the negativity of love being a literal guiding star. I don't see the negativity of saying that you refuse to admit that there can be no marriage between two minds. I don't see a contradiction in saying that love survives to the edge of doom. Life was very harsh in those days. Doom hung around on street corners in the form of plague, government narks, footpads ... The idea that love will take you right up to the moment of excruciating death is not negative. I think that one day this spoil-sport interpretation of the sonnet will be trashed and we can all just enjoy it again. When Shakespeare WANTS to be cynical about love, he makes it VERY clear. Look at Sonnet 138 ("Therefore I lie with her and she with me/And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.") Every LINE of 138 makes it very clear that he and his mistress have a relationship based on falsehood. I don't see this cynicism in 116. It certainly expresses the perils of a dangerous and sometimes unpleasant world, but there is very much a feeling of two people battling this unpleasantness together. Shakespeare experts are sometimes just too fancy-schmanzy smart for their own good, and want to show how dumb the rest of us are. Damn you all! Hope there's no star in sight when you get lost at sea, and when you get to the edge of doom, your lover tells you you're a pain in the ass. So there!

In the words of Andre 3000 "If they saying nothing is forever, then what makes love the exception"

This video fits superbly in the entire narrative of the sonnet as well, since it captures the change of love Shakespeare feels for the Fairy Youth and Dark Lady

I'm sorry, but "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" is a far more famous of his sonnets.

If you go to the Shakespeare online concordance, you'll see that the word 'admit' is not a rare one for Shakespeare. There are two instances in 'Hamlet': "... that she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. " "That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty." Both are, of course, references to Ophelia. In the first, the clear meaning is 'to be allowed in', and in the second, it's a metaphorical 'admit', meaning that beauty should not be allowed to compromise her honesty by having any kind of discourse with it. This is the 'admit' we have here, surely. That the writer will not permit the idea of the marriage of true minds to be challenged by cynics who suggest impediments. The writer will simply not entertain the idea. Perhaps we're allowed to infer that the writer is saying that any such challenge would, in his view, be absurd. This kind of microscopic text-hunting reminds me of Shakespeare deniers, desperately scanning words for some obscure reference to de Vere, or Henry Neville, or old Uncle Tom Cobley. So anxious to demonstrate how smart you are that you insist that when the writer says black he means white. Sometimes ... honestly ... even poets say what they mean. Sometimes a cigar is ... just a cigar.

When Shakespeare finished writing Sonnet 116 he was heard to remark, “Thank f*** for that. Only 38 to go”

I always love your videos for your thoughts and the way you pack them in beautifully written narrations. But damn - those minimalistic, perfectly thought out animations. The way the Sonnet breaks into the lines / structure. Kudos to that as well!

For those under true love its less of a mystery. He understands there's not a chance hes wrong and the entire poem gets flipped on its head. Liked the video.

Modernism Interpretation: “I’ve experienced inner peace within a tumultuous, dreary life; this is what love is and how one knows whether to trust in it.” Postmodernism: Shakespeare’s “love sonnet” is, really, a thinly-veiled meditation on the existential despair that is your life!!! The impending heat-death of the universe is nigh-forever!

I feel like (in America at least) "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" and "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" are far more popular than 116. But what a great video, and great topic!

Amazing analysis. I remember studying this sonnet at university, amoung a bunch of others. Though I would argue that Sonnet 18 is a lot more iconic than this. But it is definitely one of the most recognisable.

I thought I knew my Shakespeare pretty well, but all my life I've always thought sonnet 18 was the most famous in that most people I've known can at least recite the first line ("Shall I compare thee to a summers' day?"). By what metric are we measuring fame here? Honest question.

Please, more poetry videos.

"It's his most famous sonnet." Sonnet 18 enters the chat...

When Nerdwriter1 posts a video, we all listen. Simple as that.

Where was this when I was writing my iGCSEs. Have to say this makes me appreciate something I never cared about and that's all thanks to you, the Shakespeare of video essays.

2:44. Another interesting aspect of the phrase “Love is not love” is how a contrast of repetition is also used in the next two lines. “Alters” is contrasted with “alteration” and “remover” with “remove.” (A figure of rhetoric technically called polyptoton, when a word is repeated in a different form.) These parallel structures would seem to reinforce and emphasize the original contrast.

Really liked the ocean in the background finally being illuminated in conjunction with the conclusion 👍🏼

So glad you made another video about poetry after all this time. Hope to see more!

On 6:25 when you colour the word admit when you said it, nice touch

It’s my birthday and I get to watch a new Nerdwriter video. I needed this :)

Re: the Remarkable It’s fantastic! I’ve been using it for a year and a half and not regretting the cost either. Also, the Remarkable has a separate marking pencil which is great for working with pdfs, because it auto-detects the text. So no need for trembly underlining.

no way this is his most famous sonnet... "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Always a good day when I get a Nerdwriter upload notification

Like many great poems it is multi layered, as you develop as a human being you reach deeper layers and this is a beautiful aspect of great art

Came back to this the other day, one of your finest deconstruction and analyses.

I like this idea that's love is not a constant and permanent thing written somewhere in a magical all-knowing book, but it's a product of a relationship between people. That's something that needs to be made and create via our acts for the loved ones. Love's purely human.

Quatrain 2, for WS a "mark" is often used in allusions or metaphors involving archery

IMO the point is that if you really love someone, then you always will...no matter how disastrous things turn out.

i like the way you explain in all the point of view kepp on doing this kind of works

I would recommend the book The Sacred Art of Shakespeare. I think it would add a dimension that's missing from the video entirely.

Made my Afternoon instantly better

The editing of the video is amazing.

We live for this.

“If what they say is, ‘nothing is forever’ then what makes… love the exception” - Andre 3000

Love your content! Thank you for posting

You know Nerdwriter, my love for your vids and analysis might be impermanent according to Mr. Shakespeare, but I still love those sweet and slow, chef's kiss, closing lines you end all your video essay parts with. ;D.

You pointed out the Love is not love line as being paradoxical but it's actually not. Its capital L Love being compared to lower case l love. The use of capitals on concepts like Love means it is being used in the meta sense. Which is what the whole poem is about true eternal Love vs temporal earthly love. Its used in philosophy alot.

He added something in this beautiful video that freaked the hell out of me for a second.

O! I think the Nerdwriter analysing poetry is something I could get very comfortable with. Great video, as always!

1:39 true love 2:34 cannot keep souls that have an understanding from being separated 4:28 whatever is true, whatever is noble, etc 4:48 death is inevitable Love bears all things love never fails 6:57 yes

Amazing video as always, but i thought the conclusion fell a little short this time. I agree that the antagonisms in love are real, in the sense that it cannot be mediated completely. Yet by giving an answer as neutral knowledge about the 'true' nature of love, you seem to have reduced this antagonism to just one of many which can be mediated. The paradoxical nature seems to have been lost. I think the more radical solution will be letting the lover take full subjective responsibility for his decisions. Something of the sort, "I am going to do such and such for no other reason than that I have decided to love this object! You can ask whatever you like! I have no good answer!" Here instead of the lover's impotence being hidden behind an objective knowledge, the impotence becomes the very basis of the lover's power. By taking full subjective responsibility and asserting fidelity to something which has no objective basis, the lover, in true enlightenment fashion (recall Kant's maxim) not only does his duty but assumes full responsibility for doing it. Shakespeare uses this idea in Hamlet as well. When he gets no answer from his mother, hamlet has to take full responsibility for his decision to kill his uncle. He can no longer look for an objective answer.

Happy to see your work ☺️

You had good observations! I'd like to add mine. Firstly, it reminds me of the ending of The Great Gatsby. 1st Quatrain: I think the speaker will not meddle with (and perhaps protect) a romantic couple whose minds are concerned with truth. "Love is not love" is simply an oxymoron meant to allude of the depth of Love. Love does not alter; Love does not bend for anything or anyone. 2nd Quatrain: Love as an ever-fixed *mark.* I take that to mean Love is a _state of being_ as much as a destination for the wand'ring barks; it's an effervescent star, a navigational guide, for everyone and those whose path/purpose is unknown, those w meandering souls. You, the reader, the wanderer, must find the state of being in love and know that likewise as your destination---a further trajectory of the state of being in love; no matter the tempests or risks. 3rd Quatrain: Love is timeless. Although it hurts the rosy lips and cheeks of the inexperienced youth, often cut by the sickle of First Loves, it is ageless, it can't be measured or quantified by time. Love is as potent in the first hours as it is years later---To the edge of doom (a Love that spawns these types of headlines: An 11-year-old boy fell into an Italian volcanic crater. His parents also died trying to save him.) I think the couplet simply means that he really believes in _his_ description of Love to be correct: i.e., he believes that Love is everlasting. If it is not then "no man [has] ever lov'd"; if love shakes, alters, or bends then "[he] never writ". --if you like this, consider following me on tt, @xxxslinky

I just learned how to speak this sonnet in OP (original pronunciation), so I got very excited when the notification for this video popped up on my phone :D

God, this is beautiful. I returned to this and have this feeling that I will again in the future. Thank you.

Thanks for finishing that book so we can start getting more vidz on the reg. 👊 #excited

he defines his use of "admit" in his last line

Beautifully done.

One more point. The enjambment after 'love is not love'... Suppose there were no line break. If the sentence were to be continuous, it would read: "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." This would alter the meaning. We now have a phrase 'love which alters' which suggests that there is a particular type of love which is inclined to alter. The meaning is now blurred. Whereas with a line break, it is obvious to the reader that the paradoxical 'love is not love' is about to be qualified in the course of the following line. And here's another thing. COMMAS are very important. (The punctuation seems to be Shakespeare's choice*) He has chosen NOT to put a comma at the end of the line. This is surely an important indicator to the reader that the thought begun in the second line is to be completed in the third. The reader is NOT invited to see the statement 'love is not love' in isolation. *en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_116 for facsimile of original

Love this analysis. Great video.

"...a poem which has about it no strangeness whatever..." - Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. Tucker Brooke. London: Oxford UP: 1936. p. 34

Great appreciation of 116. I think you nailed it!

These poetry ones are particularly excellent Well done

always amazing !

I love your poetry analysis-- I think I've seen the Emily Dickinson video at least three times. Stunning analysis, perfect visuals. Thank you so much!

Oh my god. Amazing. That gave me chills!

Great video. Loved the breakdown. But I'd argue that Sonnet 18 is Shakespeare's most famous.

Great how the sonnet rhyme structure literally gives you a GG at the end

Glad to hear Shakespeare ended each sonnet with a G G. Good sport.

This is such a pleasure to watch!

You spoil your viewers with such high quality content! ^^

The best video essayist on RU-vid.

Evan's work is like wine, the more time passes, the more cultured and refined it gets, the better it's tastefulness

Shakespeare was influenced by Plato and this poem is Platonic, with Love as a Form that enables us to be human

Anyone reading this should listen to Sir Laurence Olivier recite this on the Dick Cavett show. It is on RU-vid. You won't regret listening to it.

any nerdwriter update is a good update.

Haven't read any S sonnets, but after watching this, i feel i should. another thing to listen to from nerdwriter1. He never fails to amaze and leave me speechless. admit to me is something that comes later when an initial process regarding anything attached to it had happened.. Admission is half way through submitting to something for a period of time and you promise to yourself you will do anything for desired purpose, i.e a task needs to be completed, and when you don't get to the bottom of it, and you realize you didn't make it to completely, that's when admitting to the factual reality comes in and i think admission of anything must comes from the heart. It's like you made a mistake with your partner and you realize that your mistake is causing misery/anger/trouble, what you think one should do in the moment upon realization, which often happens at a later time?

It was great and profound video. Thank you.

We want more, i am ready to beg you for this, plz

Poetry explication is the nerdiest nerd thing. I love it. Thanks!

The edit is a delight to watch.

Nerdwriter should drop every week 😭😭😭

More poetry videos please, these are so fascinating.

We cherish the things we could lose - The most!

1:06 i reckon sonnet 18 is more famous than 116, because the pay person definitely knows the line ‘shall i compare thee to a summers day’

I have always loved Sonnet 116 but took it at surface level. This made me think differently about it. Nice video!

Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be. Shakespeare is the goat!