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This blog on NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Woven Words Poem 2: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds provides simple and clear answers to the questions of this poem. It helps students understand the themes of love, constancy, and resilience in this sonnet. These solutions will help students in exam revision by exploring the poem’s depth. You can also download the free PDF for quick revision.
Contents
Explore Notes of Class 11 English Woven Words
| Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 |
NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Poem 2: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
Here are the NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Woven Words Poem 2: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds, designed to enhance understanding of the poem’s themes, structure, and imagery for effective revision.
UNDERSTANDING THE POEM
- ‘Constancy’ is the theme of the poem. Indicate the words, phrases, and images that suggest the theme.
Solution: The theme of constancy in Shakespeare’s sonnet is conveyed through words, phrases, and images that emphasise love’s enduring, unchangeable nature. The phrase “the marriage of true minds” suggests a deep, spiritual bond that transcends physical or temporal challenges. Words like “fixed” in “a mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken” evoke steadfastness, comparing love to a lighthouse enduring storms. The image of love as “the star to every wandering bark” implies a constant, guiding force, unwavering despite life’s uncertainties. Phrases such as “never shaken” and “ever-fixed mark” reinforce love’s permanence, while “Love alters not” and “bears it out even to the edge of doom” highlight its resilience against time and adversity, collectively illustrating constancy as love’s defining quality.
- Why do you think the poet has used so many ‘negatives’ to make his statement?
Solution: Shakespeare employs numerous negatives, such as “Let me not,” “never shaken,” “alters not,” and “nor no man ever loved,” to emphasise the strength and certainty of true love by defining what it is not. By negating impermanence, change, and obstacles, “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds”, the poet underscores that true love remains constant despite external pressures. This use of negatives creates a rhetorical effect, forcefully rejecting any notion of love as fleeting or conditional. It also builds a sense of conviction, as the poet methodically dismisses all that could undermine love, making the affirmation of its enduring nature more powerful and persuasive, engaging readers with its resolute tone.
- What does the line ‘I never writ, nor no man ever loved’ imply?
Solution: The line “I never writ, nor no man ever loved” serves as a bold assertion of the poet’s confidence in his definition of true love. It implies that if the poet’s claims about love’s constancy are untrue, then his writing lacks validity (“I never writ”), and no person has ever experienced true love (“nor no man ever loved”). This double negative strengthens the poet’s argument, suggesting that the existence of true love, as he describes it, unchanging and eternal, is so undeniable that questioning it would negate both his work and the universal experience of love. The line underscores the poet’s absolute belief in love’s enduring nature, challenging sceptics to disprove it.
- Love is presented as the subject or doer of actions in the poem. Why do you think the poet has used this form rather than involving human agents?
Solution: Shakespeare personifies love as the subject or doer of actions, such as “Love is not love / Which alters” and “Love alters not,” to present it as an autonomous, universal force rather than a quality dependent on human agents. By making love the active entity, the poet elevates it to a timeless, almost divine principle that exists independently of individual flaws or actions. This form emphasises love’s constancy as an inherent trait, unaffected by human weaknesses or external circumstances. It also universalises the poem’s message, focusing on the abstract ideal of love rather than specific lovers, making it relatable across time and cultures, and reinforcing its philosophical depth.
- Explain the phrases
a. his bending sickle’s compass
Solution: The phrase “his bending sickle’s compass” refers to Time, personified as a figure wielding a sickle, a tool associated with reaping or death. The “bending sickle” symbolises Time’s destructive power, cutting down life and beauty. “Compass” suggests the range or scope of Time’s influence, implying that everything within its reach, youth, beauty, and life, eventually succumbs to its passage. In the context of the poem, this phrase contrasts with love’s constancy, asserting that true love remains steadfast even within Time’s destructive domain, unaffected by its inevitable decay.
b. Time’s fool
Solution: The phrase “Time’s fool” refers to something or someone that is subject to Time’s whims, easily manipulated or diminished by its passage. In the poem, Shakespeare declares that love is “not Time’s fool,” meaning true love is not weakened or controlled by Time’s destructive forces, such as ageing or change. Unlike fleeting beauty or transient desires, which fade under Time’s influence, love remains constant, enduring beyond physical decay or temporal shifts, reinforcing the poem’s theme of love’s permanence.
Also Read: NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 1: The Portrait of a Lady (Free PDF)
TRY THIS OUT
- What do you understand by a sonnet?
Solution: A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme and meter, typically iambic pentameter, often exploring themes of love, beauty, or time. The Shakespearean sonnet, as seen in “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds,” follows a structure of three quatrains and a final couplet, with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each quatrain develops an aspect of the theme, here, love’s constancy, while the couplet often provides a resolution or twist. The sonnet’s concise form allows for a concentrated exploration of complex emotions or ideas, using vivid imagery and rhetorical devices to engage readers.
- Look at some other sonnets and notice the variations in the structure of the sonnet that are possible.
Solution: Students can explore other sonnets to observe structural variations. The Shakespearean sonnet, as in this poem, uses three quatrains and a couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). In contrast, the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, seen in works by Petrarch or later poets like John Milton, divides into an octave (ABBAABBA) and a sestet (CDCDCD or CDECDE), with a volta or thematic shift between them. The Spenserian sonnet (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE), as in Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti, links quatrains through rhyme, creating a flowing effect. Modern sonnets, like those by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, may retain 14 lines but experiment with rhyme or meter. Students can compare these forms, noting how structural variations shape the poem’s tone, pacing, and thematic development, enhancing their understanding of poetic flexibility.
Download NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Poem 2: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
You can download the free PDF of NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Poem 2: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds for effective revision.
Download more NCERT Solutions of Class 11 English ‘Woven Words’ here!
| Poem 1: The Peacock Solution |
| Poem 3: Coming Solution |
| Poem 4: Telephone Conversation Solution |
| Poem 5: The World is too Much With Us Solution |
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