Why Does Shakespeare Rhyme Scheme

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In Shakespeare’s sonnet, he tackles an ambiguous and complex emotion like love, by breaking it down into three parts: what love doesn’t do, what love is and what love does. This is all shown with the use of simplistic language and a rhyme scheme of ‘abab’. In the first quatrain, the speaker is defining love by what it doesn’t do, which in this case, is that it doesn’t change even if it finds change in the one it loves. The entirety of the sonnet is in iambic pentameter, which is common for Shakespeare, as it gives it a pace which makes the rhyme scheme more prominent, especially when read aloud. Despite this however, the reader is forced to stop mid-flow in the second line due to the caesura: “Admit impediments. Love is not love”. This not only causes an uneven rhythm, but it also causes discomfort when reading aloud, and draws attention to the line post-punctuation. The speaker wants the reader to focus on the most important part of the first quatrain, which is that love doesn’t “alter when it alteration finds”. Another thing noticeable at the start is the eye rhyme with the words “love” and “remove”. Both of these look as though they should rhyme but don’t, which again, could be …show more content…
Love here, is described as an “ever-fixed mark” which could be in reference to a star as well as being linked back to the idea that love doesn’t waiver. Also, the speaker is suggesting that love is not left open to storms (“tempests”), which again, is an extended metaphor to mean any obstacles that would taint love in a relationship, such as infidelity or lies. So to an extent, the speaker is comparing the way that a star guides travellers, to love guiding people, either to each other or towards where they’re supposed to be. Essentially, even if they don’t know where they’re going, love will take them

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