How Shakespeare wrote about Love? - Shung Tak Catholic English College

Over the past days and months, we have heard a lot about how love is patient and how love is kind. But have you ever wondered what the greatest ever writer in the English language said about love? Who is this writer? William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wrote many plays such as Hamlet and Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet but today, I would like to share with you one of his sonnets. More specifically, Sonnet 116. What are sonnets you might ask. Shakespeare’s sonnets are essentially short, 14-line long poems consisting of three quatrains and a closing couplet. There are a total of 154 sonnets and Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day is one of the more famous ones.

Sonnet 116 is a beautiful sonnet and is very often read at weddings as it is essentially the definition of love. You can easily Google Sonnet 116 in its entirety but let me share a little with you:

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.

I would like to highlight two lines, “It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken” These two lines are saying that the definition of love is a guiding light to which all strive to achieve. The exact worth of love is not known but everybody has an idea of where and what it is and so their own love is measured against this.

But how is this relevant to kindness? When you offer a jacket to a classmate that is feeling cold, that is kindness. When you volunteer your time to visit the elderly or to give out food to the homeless, that is kindness. When you sit with and comfort a friend who is feeling sad, that is kindness. When you take the time to see how your parents are doing at the end of a long day, that is kindness.

As you can see, like love, we all have an idea about what kindness is and what kindness isn’t. I would encourage you to measure yourself against what you consider kindness to be and to strive towards achieving that for those around you too. Know what kindness is. Be kind.

Mr Manchester
10 Oct 2022