one can calculate its worth or value. Similarly, the value of a true love is also without measure.
The idea of constancy in love is also the focus of the third quatrain, but in these lines the poet uses personification to emphasize his point. Both Time and Love are personified. But even though Time is personified as in the earlier sonnets, as a destructive figure carrying its scythe or sickle, Love (signifying true love) is the stronger of the two figures. By stating that Love is not the "fool" (in line
9) or victim of time, the speaker is suggesting that no matter how much time passes, true love never fades or diminishes. True love always remains strong. The speaker admits that Time can take away the "rosy [or red] lips and cheeks" of the lovers. In other words, the two lovers, over a period of time, will grow old and lose their youthful glow. But, the speaker asserts that, despite losing the attractiveness of their youth, the two lovers will continue to love each other just as strongly as they did in their youth. Their love continues even though their looks do not. At the end of the quatrain the speaker comments that true love lasts until the day of "doom" -- until Dooms Day or Judgment Day. In other words, it lasts forever.
In the couplet the speaker, as a poet, inserts himself (note the pronouns me and I) into his definition. The shift in the poem occurs here. In the first twelve lines the poet defines true love. In the last two lines, he asserts the validity (the reasonableness or logic) of his claim. Essentially, the speaker is stating that if he is wrong, then he has