Love help: Could some1 do me a great honour by explaining sonnet 116 simply by shakespeare :) thanku! - Help.com

I think he is saying that love lasts forever, ‘even to the edge of doom’, and if he is proved wrong, he has never written and no man has ever really loved, which is obviously false as he has written many a play and sonnet. By saying this, he is using his own work as a foundation and saying love is as true as his written word. He is questioning love over time, its steadiness and lasting. Even though time passes, love still remains. Love never goes away, it cannot be removed.
At the beginning of the sonnet, he seems to be saying love isn’t real, he doesn’t believe those ‘true minds’, and wants them to admit it isn’t real. But then he says ‘O no! it is an ever fixed mark’ meaning he realises it is always and will always be there. Then he talks about time with his ‘compass come’ and that time doesn’t change with his hours and weeks, but it lasts forever.
He is stating the trueness and lasting of love.

I couldnt have written it better myself C+C!

Shakespeare is describing unconditional love. (Or at least how I see it.)

I agree with almost everything everyone has said…although I have a different understanding about the first line than green_eyes. Shakespeare says “let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments” - which means, to me, that he does not think there are any impediments that could get in the way of people who are truly in love. This whole sonnet is about unconditional love - no “impediments” can get in its way, nothing can remove it, nothing can change it, not time, not any kind of “tempests” or problems…it will endure ANYTHING (even to the “edge of doom”!) and he is saying (like green_eyes said) that if someone can prove him wrong on this, then he has never written a line (which we know to be untrue), and furthermore, that no man has ever really loved.

I love Shakespeare…

ah, i didnt read it like that…that was the only line i had problems understanding what it meant! cheers crestfallen

what are you confused about? He is basically saying that if someone can tell him that love doesnt exist and that no-one has ever truly loved someone, he will say that he has never written. Now obviously he has written many many works, so in relation to that, many many people have truly loved.

“or bends with the remover to remove”

If it goes away when someone tries to remove it, then it isn’t love. Is that what you’re asking?
As for love being as true as his word, I guess it’s just supposed to show that this is how strongly he believes in this interpretation of love, and it’s kinda like he’s saying “if this isn’t true, I’ll eat my hat!” or something like that. Does that make anymore sense?

Thanks green_eyes :) I guess the in-depth Shakespeare studies I took didn’t go to waste! lol