Poem of the Day (July 28)

[Anonymous No.20748354]

What are your thoughts on this poem, /lit/?

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Yesterday's poem >>20743112

[Anonymous No.20748356]

>William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
>Shakespeare's influence extends from theater and literatures to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language itself. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through innovation in characterization, plot, language and genre. Shakespeare's writings have also impacted many notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and Maya Angelou, and continue to influence new authors even today. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world after the various writers of the Bible; many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages. According to Guinness Book of World Records Shakespeare remains the world’s best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

[Anonymous No.20748566]

I don't get it

[Anonymous No.20748590]

>>20748354
Probably one of the greatest poems ever written - those last two lines are just incredible, turning inwards and outwards simultaneously, personal and universal, stunning

[Anonymous No.20748888]

>>20748566
It'ss about unchanging and unbreaking love.

[Anonymous No.20749953]

Bump

[Anonymous No.20749958]

Did anyone do it better than Shakespeare? I doubt he will ever be surpassed. The language of unending time.

[Anonymous No.20751072]

Bump

[Anonymous No.20752367]

I like the message but the construction of the poem feels awkward to me, even compared to Shakespeare's other work.
Some of it is just that it uses words that we don't use or pronounce in the same way in modern English. I'd imagine, for instance, that most people don't know that bark is an old word that means "boat".
But even outside of that I feel like the ideas are being expressed here in a confusing way. I like the line about love being like a constellation that you can use to guide yourself, but the rest of the poem is largely about things that love isn't. I feel like if you're going to write a poem about love you should be describing the things that love is, not the things love is not.
I dunno. I'm not trying to give writing advice to The Immortal Bard, I just don't understand the way this poem is structured.