[Adapted from my original Historical Romance Magazine blog post]
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.
One of the most familiar and oft quoted love poems of the English language, William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 conjures up pleasant memories for me.
I’m probably not the only one here that first heard it first in the 1995 movie version of Sense and Sensibility- and then committed it to memory that same year along with my husband, who was taking a Shakespeare class at the time.
Nowadays, when I hear this sonnet in my head, it’s spoken in the sable baritone of British actor Richard Armitage who reads it in the Audible Collection of Classic Love Poems. This audio collection features poems from a variety of poets, not only Shakespeare, and it’s provided me excellent listening material while I paint or cook.
Here’s a link to an old interview with Richard about his experience recording the poems. https://youtu.be/1CWi73TYWHE Interview with Richard Armitage – narrator of 'Classic Love Poems' on Audio Books.
Richard Armitage as John Thornton in BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s “North and South”
Who else here watched or read Sense and Sensibility as a much younger woman and just could not see appeal in the Colonel Brandon character? How about Persuasion? Was the plainer or older hero and heroine harder to identify with? Has that changed for you as you’ve gotten older?
I’d like to know what you think.
How we relate to fictional characters may correlate to our own evolving understanding of love in all its seasons. The word “love” in English really has a variety of meanings and by its nature, or our nature, seems to change through the years.
Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth in 1995 BBC production of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”
My husband and I met before the internet and cell phone era. I lived in Maine and he lived in Washington state. We wrote long letters to each other, and there was nothing more thrilling at the time then getting a letter from him in the mail. We talked on the phone 1x a month and the letters flew twice a month at about 20 pages each. We have them saved and bundled with ribbons.
Moving away from lovers… do you have anyone close to you that you still write to with pen and paper?
I am grateful that I have letters from my grandparents, great-grandparents and other dear relatives and friends saved. It’s so precious to see their handwriting and remember the family events that were going on while they were alive.
I have a dear friend that gave me a blue lapis pen with gold flecks in it and some handmade writing paper many years ago. I still treasure the pen. It’s got the very unromantic name of ‘Super Pen” and I still buy it ink and use it for letter writing. This friend and I correspond through letters only and share a passion for art, books, and paper craft. Our relationship has produced a very special collection of letters that now span nearly thirty years of our lives and the exchange won’t stop until one of us stops (in that final sort of way).
The lapis pen and postcards in “Memories of Summer” by Thimgan Hayden
I hope you’ve enjoyed this foray into the art of love and letters! Cards and letters are an inexpensive and yet precious gift to give.
You’re welcome to write and tell me of your special letter or life event. I hope to hear about it!
Sincerely,
Charlotte B.
