NCERT Book Class 11 English (Woven Words) Poetry 2 Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds

Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds 109 2 Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds William Shakespeare 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. ABOUT THE POET William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was one of the greatest poets and dramatists of the English language. Born at Stratford-on-Avon, England, he went to London where his reputation as a dramatist and poet was established. His Sonnets, 154 in number, probably written between 1593 and 1598, were published in 1602. The above sonnet is sonnet number 116 in which we have a depiction of true love. His voluminous work includes 37 plays and two narrative poems.