Classical Poet: William Shakespeare

 

                      Let Me Not To Marriage True Minds

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.

Commentary

The poem talks about love in an ideal form. Shakespeare acknowledges the glories of lovers who have come to one another freely, an came in a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines shows the poets pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when its alteration finds." The following lines declare that rue love is definitely an "ever-fix'd mark" which can and will survive any disaster.
   In lines seven through eight, Shakespeare claims that WE (society) may be able to measure love to some degree, but that does not mean WE all understand it. He states that love is a mystery. The remaining lines inspirits the perfect nature of love that is unbreakable throughout time and stays so "ev'n to the edge of doom," or death  In the final couplet, Shakespeare declares that if he is mistaken about perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith.
Most of the words are monosyllables in this poem. There is nothing metaphysical in the thought of his idea for this poem. The theme of the poem expressed love and question do society knows its actual meaning, and also Shakespeare question himself on the definite meaning of love. This poem would be classified as a sonnet due to the fourteen lines of formal rhyming. Shakespeare definitely  uses personification by giving the feeling/idea love human characteristics and also in-animated objects.
This was a classical poem that I actually understood by reading the first two times, and a poem I actually relate to.