Notes for Shakespeare's Sonnet 116


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Shakespeare's
Sonnet
116

2. Admit impediments: Echoes the marriage service: "If any of you know cause or just impediment why these persons should not be joined together . . ."

4. bends with the remover to remove: i.e., goes away when the beloved goes away.

5. mark: i.e., seamark. —Seamarks are navigation aids, such as buoys, beacons, and wind-proof structures, such as the one pictured below.

6. tempests: storms.

7. bark: ship.

8. his height be taken: i.e., its height is [or can be] calculated. —The apparent height of Polaris (the North Star) above the horizon was used to determine the latitude of a ship. A sextant, seen in use below, was used to calculate the height of Polaris.

9. Time's fool: Time's plaything or object of mockery.

10. Within his bending sickle's compass: i.e., within curved range of of Time's scythe. —Father Time uses his sickle (or scythe) cut down people, as a harvester uses his to cut down grain.

11. his: i.e., Time's.

12. bears it out: endures.   the edge of doom: the brink of Doomsday.