Longevity of Love

The central theme of "Since There's No Help," is, like most sonnets written during the early modern period of English literature, love. More specifically, the poem meditates on the nature of love as an enduring force, one that can continue to thrive despite major setbacks or obstacles. In the octave, the speaker announces his intentions to give up on love altogether and to cease pursuing his beloved who has not returned his affections. Another similar reading of the first eight lines is that the speaker and his beloved have fallen out of love, and are agreeing that their relationship cannot be salvaged. Either reading suggests that love has its limits and can end just as quickly as it began.

However, the second half of the poem entirely contradicts this notion of love's expiration date. The speaker imagines the exact moment that his love begins...