In high school I had an English lit teacher who loved Shakespeare. We studied this sonnet—possibly Shakespeare’s best known—and it has been one of my favorites ever since.
Sonnet 116
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.
~ William Shakespeare
In a nutshell, he’s saying true lasts forever. Except he says it so much better!
I also love Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, especially Twelfth Night. Have you seen the 1996 film version, with Ben Kingsley as Feste? I’ve always loved the young-woman-posing-a-man plot and it’s so well done in this play. Which is why it’s so timeless. Another great version was the teen film, She’s the Man (2006). The two together make a great double feature!
Until next time,
Lee
