he loves."In the third quatrain, the speaker alternates between naming what love's characteristics are, and are not" (Shakespeare 2). "Love now appears as a sage, not taken in by youthful beauty. Love perseveres long after youth's beauty fades: . . ." (Muth 4). Shakespeare says that time can destroy youth and beauty but it is unable to destroy love. Shakespeare uses the word "compass" in line 10 to show that "the 'compass' of Time's scythe is its sweeping arc, but it is also a device used to guide ships, and thus reminds the reader or the preceding nautical metaphor" (Shakespeare 3). Shakespeare is reinforcing the idea that true love can't be altered even to the "edge of doom [death]" (116.12). To Shakespeare love is an ideal that nothing can destroy and that is why he forgave his friend for sleeping with the dark woman.The closing couplet reinforces the sonnet. Shakespeare is saying that he holds firm in his beliefs of what true love is and that if he is wrong then he has never written anything worthwhile and no one has ever been in love (www.vccslitonline.cc.va.us). With "Sonnet 116" Shakespeare is able to show the comfort aspect of love seen in "Sonnet 144." He does this by using his friend, whom he views as his soulmate, to show that nothing has altered his love for the man although he may have been angry for awhile about the affair. Shakespeare does this by holding firm to his definition of love and comparing it to the guiding light of the north star. Therefore, as the introduction stated we have the first words of each of the three pairs--light, comfort, and love."Sonnet 116" shows light, comfort, and love. However, "Sonnet 147" complements it by showing dark, despair, and hate. This sonnet was also written after Shakespeare found out about the affair between the young man and dark woman. This sonnet is written to the dark woman and shows the duality of Shakespeare's heart by demonstrating that whereas he forgave hi...
