Saturday, May 4, 2013

An Ever-Fixed Mark




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.
Sonnet 116



As a lover of words, it's hard to find just one quote that I can call my favorite. There are few things as satisfying as stumbling upon a sentence or paragraph or stanza that contains words so perfectly and artfully put together, with meaning to match, that you find yourself deeply moved, or laughing out loud, or discovering something about the world that you'd never before considered.

Shakespeare's writing about love stirs me, and none more than this excerpt from his Sonnet 116. I am moved by the power he ascribes to love, the imagery of a tempest, the words, "never shaken." True love makes for the toughest of bonds. It is unbreakable. Fierce. It's more than a feeling--it's a force.


Linking up with Jenni for Blog Every Day in May, Day 4: Favorite Quote



3 comments:

  1. I want everyone in Kate's Blog World to know that she just won a speed typing challenge against me, her husband. I thought that I was a decent typist and clocked in at about 60 WPM. Then Kate stepped up to the plate and tapped along at a blistering 112 WPM. So, I suppose the moral to this story is, never challenge a master pianist to a finger dexterity based competition!

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  2. I love this quote. To me, love is something that is impossible to describe. Somehow, Shakespeare is the one poet who is able to put the feeling to words so accurately.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Emily
    jolieemily.blogspot.com

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  3. Indeed! Thanks for stopping by, Emily!

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