I listen to u to practice my english skill . it is really easy to undertand what u say . thank you for that.

Oh how I love this sonnet

I believe that the sonnet is a legal opening statement (see line 11 where he uses the word brief as a clue) and that the poem must be read before Sonnet 117 which is the poet's appeal to charges he slandered his wife (see line 13 for the verbal clue "appeal"). The poetic links are in the use of terms for navigation in both and that both refer to sailing in line 7: Sonnet 116 has "wandering bark" (a type of boat) and 117 mentions that he "hoisted sail to all the winds". I call the use of the same theme or word in subsequent poems in the 1609 quarto of the Sonnets the rhetorical figure of "homostoikhos" which is Greek for "in the same line" (I coined the term for this device since nobody may have noticed this before). It is evidence that there are poems in the quarto which must be read in the order they appear in the book. When read in order, the poems become a lawyer's opening statement and his appeal to charges he did not spend enough time with his wife (see the first and second quatrains of 117 for more details). Why do I say it was his wife he was addressing? Because in 117 he mentions her "own dear purchase right" which suggests the dowry her father was supposed to give the poet when they got married. This is evidence that the woman he addresses is his wife and not a mistress. Imagine a lawyer is reciting 116 and when he gets to the final line, the mic drops and you will get the idea what I mean. After she answers with her case, he replies with Sonnet 117. This interpretation adds humour, depth, and humanity to what are otherwise seen as abstract poems. The sonnets are the poet's poetic diary where he comments on events and people in his life.

Thank you so much! You explained it so well! For a few weeks I've been trying to find an easy explanation for this poem!

A couple of comments: first, you gloss over the line, "It is the star to every wandering bark/ Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken." The "height" here has nothing to do with the weight of the ship and its cargo in the water. Ships were guided on the open seas by measuring the height of the star to determine the position on the map. One used a compass to achieve that knowledge. So the worth of the star may be unknown to some casual viewer of the North Star on the land, but to a ship at sea, it was invaluable. Also, you gloss over the beauty and the irony of the final couplet of the sonnet: "If this be error and upon me proved/ I never writ nor no man ever loved." Shakespeare is finalizing the value of his belief about love by saying in essence, "If I'm wrong, then I have never written anything before (yet this is Sonnet 116) nor no man have I ever loved (the sonnet is still addressed to his male patron) nor has no other man ever loved at all (which of course would be absurd). He gets to have it both ways with his clever word choice in this very condensed poetic form.

Thanks so much

your youtube videos are all so good!!!

My favourite 👍

Wonderful teach

I didn't expect Emily the Criminal was so well educated.

Watch Laurence Olivier do it on the Dick Cavett show.

Why is there 14 quatrains? Why not 15 or 16 or any specific number?