Question

Why do you think the poet has used so many 'negatives' to make his statement?

Answer 1

“Marriage of True Minds” is the Shakespearean idea of love. The poet goes on explaining what love is not. All that love shall not comprise. Rather than singing in praise of the qualities that true love possesses, Shakespeare goes on listing all that loves should be free of. Or rather, to say, the negatives that do not go in the making of true love that lasts forever and is ageless. It is opposite to what is usually said about love. Shakespeare approaches the whole idea of love the other way round. He says that love is not that imposes restrictions; it does not change in response to changes. Love does not die with the departure of a lover. It is to live forever. In the third quatrain also, Shakespeare tells the reader the love sans negatives. He declares that love is not time-dependent or is altered by physical beauty. Physical beauty withers as time goes by but love grows in leaps and bounds. It is not impressionable, it is not affected by the time. It surpasses death. It all sounds unnatural, however, this is the Shakespearean idea of love.