Schmoop contains all kinds of interesting little factoids and information all divided up under subheadings. For instance, under Analysis (on the topic bar), they give several different subheadings, such as Symbols, Imagery and Wordplay, Steaminess Rating, and Allusions.
Just glancing through, the style of writing is very much like someone who is speaking, and it's clearly geared towards a teenage group learning the elementals about Shakespeare. However, I felt like they made some good, worthwhile observations about the poem:
- "The marriage described in this poem is not a formal contract; rather, it is a "marriage of true minds," a phrase that suggests a deep understanding between two equals, rather than a mere legal bond."
- "The poem’s central extended metaphor is the comparison of love to a star – specifically the North Star, which doesn’t ever change position in the night sky. This made it particularly important to sailors, who calculated the location of their ships based on the stars."
- They also talk about the conventions of Petrarchan sonnets (although they don't call them that) and the view of love in those poems.
- In the theme section, the website writers list the themes and then give questions to spur the readers thinking about the poem.
