Sonnet 116 Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

The idea of marriage is present in the background of this poem from the very first line. However, the poet doesn’t necessarily define marriage the way people typically do, as a religious sacr...

The idea of love as a guiding star isn’t a new one, but in this poem, Shakespeare approaches it with a renewed enthusiasm. The poem’s central extended metaphor is the comparison of love...

The macabre image of the Grim Reaper was quite familiar to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan readers. This skeletal, scythe-bearing figure of Death became an icon of European culture in the medieval...