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

Shakespeare's sonnet 116, performed by Mairin O'Hagan for Live Canon

[shakespeareetc.]

This is the most convincing, heart-felt, beautiful reading of this sonnet that I have come across. Quite stunning. Thank you very much.

[rhiannonlewis]

Finally... someone who appears to have really understood what this sonnet is all about!

[michaelodonovan]

Brilliantly dramatic reading that's all about the eyes untill at 1:00 when she does a lip tremble and closes her eyes at the turn before delivering the final couplet. It's one of the best I've seen.

[RizwanJamil]

Finest rendering n recitation of Sonnet 116 amongst ladies! Ah! Heart-felt facial expressions! Marvellous out-pouring of amour through eyes, voice n visage! A practical personification of the poem!

[muhammadammarraza]

after watching this video I can literally feel these verses

[manish_bijarniya]

I can't believe you are narrating it. I believe these are your feelings. It is so fascinating to watch with mellifluous voice. Marian O'hagan you are great.

[Pablo-pdgr]

This goes directly to the heart ❤️ Thanks ❤️ I am actually crying right now.

[artmoss]

Nice job! You created an engaging dramatic context for the sonnet, in which you appeared to be trying to convince a listener, perhaps a good friend (or maybe even a potential lover?) that real love is all about commitment to one another. I think reciting a sonnet like a dramatic monologue (with a specific intention, speaker, and listener) makes it more effective than treating it as an abstract piece of poetry delivered to no one in particular.

[roseconmatswatson]

I love Mairin’s performance. I’ll be reciting this sonnet at a wedding this year and this is right up there with Patrick Stewart and Juliet Stevenson. All three are my inspiration!

[birdieh]

An excellent performance of a beautiful piece of work. Thank you. It was refreshing to watch and listen to you when so often, it’s been the men who have taken to reading this — Patrick Stewart, Tom Huddleston and Richard Armitage, to name a few.

[nataliia_pinchuk]

Wonderful! I really like it! You are the best!

[eeixx]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

[bellringer]

Though not inspired by the fixed mark of love, still feeling something closer to love😍

[eunoia_mlbb]

I love it. Is anybody read sonnet 18 in diese Youtube Chanel?

[Reem-tzrn]

How amazing, beautiful and lovely girl
I want to be like you 😊

[kingdavidapple]

Nicely done. Memorized years ago, I found the ending poor stuff. Where's the rhyme? Then I heard David & Ben Crystal talk about & demonstrate Tudor pronunciation. Check it out & try it yourself. Cheers!

[martydoherty]

Great. Compare and contrast with John Gielgud’s awful shouty performance (available on here). Olivier is good on the Dick Cavett show.

[MacKenziePoet]

Smiley recitations of 116 are not so great, really, because they tend to destroy the gravity which is one of the components of the poem's magic. Also, this novel trend of close-up views of the actor—however beautiful as in this case—tend to shift the focus on the face instead of the text and are a bit 'creepy' if you will.

[jasminetotoh]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

[deimantepranckute]

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.