"Sonnet 116" and "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why"

Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116)

William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116 talks about true love that never weathers away. Several lines from the poem read, "Admit impediments; love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with he remover to remove. O, no, it is an ever fixed mark" (2-5). I translated this to love isn't lost when tough times arise. Love is permanent, "bears it out even to the edge of doom" (12) and won't change no matter what situation comes between the two individuals who are in love or have love for each other.



"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why"

Edna St. Vincent Millay's "what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" also deals with the issue of love but in a different light. The speaker reflects on her past romantic experiences but she questions herself of who they were with and for what reason. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but how can you not remember who you slept with unless you had a lot of partners. Maybe she's a lot older and those partners were in her youthful years. While she is reminiscing, the speaker talks about how lonely she is. A portion of the poem reads, " Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one" (10). The speaker is by herself and all her meaningless memories of romance are nothing but memories now.