Sonnet 110: The search for true love
Sonnet 110 is a poem written by William Shakespeare is a demonstration of the speaker’s guilt for straying from his love and a promise not to do so again. The speaker is bitter and regretful of his previous romantic relationships. Shakespeare uses poetic sound devices, such as alliteration, rhythm and rhyme, to illustrate how the speaker pleads for his beloved to welcome him back. The sonnet starts off with a tone nostalgic and mournful tone, which emphasizes how remorseful and apologetic the speaker is. In the last couplet, the speaker concludes, “thy pure and most most loving breast.” Throughout the sonnet, the speaker refers to his beloved as “thy” and “thee”. Additionally, the double superlative “most most” makes the speaker’s plea sound more heartfelt and sincere.
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As the sonnet is drawing near an end, the speaker explains of his enduring devotion to find his true love has “no end.” (110.10) In line 11, “I never more will grind,” (110.11) the speaker explains that he has no wish to engage in new romances, because he has come to the realization that his first lover was always destined to be his. (110.11) In line 12, the use of “On newer proof” describes the speaker’s series of failed experiments he endured to realize the importance of his devotion to his true love. (110.12) The use of the word “confin’d” in line 13 indicates that the speaker is fully committed to his lover and vows to never leave her side. (110.13) The couplet is the speaker’s appeal to his lover to take him back. The first line begins, “Then give me welcome,” which invokes pity from the speaker’s lover to accept his confession and forgive him of his wrongdoing. (110.14) The use of “Next my heaven the best” reflects the speaker stating to his true love for her is equivalent to his own “heaven”. (110.14) That his true love is the closest thing to the divine.