Peace And Goodwill

William Shakespeare wrote many sonnets. Here is one followed by an interpretation, not mine, but is that of an expert on Shakespeare’s writing. This sonnet is entitled “Love’s Not Time’s Fool.”

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.

(begin) This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and is not. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love – “the marriage of true minds” – is perfect and unchanging; it does not “admit impediments,” and it does not change when it finds changes in the loved one.

In the second quatrain, the speaker tells what love is through a metaphor: a guiding star to lost ships (“wandering barks”) that is not susceptible to storms (It “looks on tempests and is never shaken”).

In the third quatrain, the speaker again describes what love is not: it is not susceptible to time. Though beauty fades in time as rosy lips and cheeks come within “his bending sickle’s compass,” love does not change with hours and weeks: instead, it “bears it out even to the edge of doom.”

In the couplet, the speaker attests to his certainty that love is as he says: if his statements can be proved to be error, he declares, he must never have written a word, and no man can ever have been in love. (end)

It is easy to see that if we are not schooled in the understanding of Shakespeare, his intent is shrouded in fog and is impenetrable for most of us. Jesus was like that because his intent, often disguised in parables, was hidden except for those Jews of his time who would have understood his meaning. We 21st century dwellers are far removed from his circumstances and surroundings so we can easily misunderstand.

Here’s a more recent yet still distant poem that rings true for today with our nation having such discontent. It’s by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) who wrote about the Civil War and of peace on earth, good-will to men! It’s entitled “Christmas Bells.”

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat