All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is… all you need. Despite what the Beatles wrote, love, in "Sonnet 75" is not all you need. You need immortal, forever-love. Regular old human love is not enough. Is this an incredibly romantic point of view? Or is the speaker just a wee-bit crazy for wanting his love to last forever and ever? "Sonnet 75" is most definitely a love poem, but it definitely seems a bit nuts in its definition of love. Writing your lady's name in the sand isn't proof of your love. Writing a sonnet about her and thus ensuring that she'll live forever, is.
Questions About Love
- Can we find the beloved's perspective on love in the poem? Or just the speaker's? Where do you see it if so?
- How does the speaker define love? Does the poem as a whole support the speaker? How can you tell?
- How does the speaker's original gesture—writing his beloved's name in the sand—compare to the sonnet he's created?
- Is there a difference between love living forever and a person living forever? If so, what?
Chew on This
The poem only acknowledges one kind of love: the immortal kind. Nothing like setting the bar high, eh?
The poem acknowledges many kinds of love (come one love, come all); the original gesture of writing his beloved's name on the strand is very much a gesture of love.