the word remover, which, like the words impediments and alteration above, also indicates an obstacle or problem that may occur in the relationship. The poet purposefully uses repetition to convey the idea that problems do occur often during the course of any relationship. However, despite all of those problems, a true love will remain constant.
The speaker uses two metaphors in the second quatrain to express the idea of constancy in a true love. The first is a "seamark" (as our editors interpret the word mark) or a landmark that is observable from the sea. The reader might envision a lighthouse, one of those strong and tall and permanent structures that sends forth a beam of light to guide sailors to safety even in the worst of sea- storms or "tempests." The lighthouse is a fixture that the sailors can always rely on. They know is has not moved, not changed, or not altered. The second metaphor used to express the constancy of love is a star, such as the North Star (Polaris). The North Star has been extremely important to sailors for centuries. Without the North Star or other stars to guide it, a ship (or "bark") could easily become lost at sea during the night. Because the stars are constant, because they are "ever-fixed" in the sky, sailors know that they can rely on them. The speaker is suggesting, then, that true love is also fixed forever. It is permanent. In the last line of the quatrain, the speaker adds that although the position of a star may be charted -- although its "highth can "be taken" -- no