Question

determine the meaning of the underlined phrases in the context of the passage.
sonnet 116
by william shakespeare
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 wandering bark,
whose worths unknown, although his height be taken.
loves not times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickles 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.
marriage
times fool
bending sickles compass
edge of doom
union
in the range of its impact
subject to the whims of change
infinity

Explanation:

• "marriage" in this context is a metaphor for a union (of true minds, i.e., of two people in love).
• "Time's fool" means being subject to the whims of change (as time can change things, but love is not like that according to the sonnet).
• "bending sickle's compass" refers to the range of Time's impact (the sickle is a symbol of Time, like the Grim Reaper's sickle, and its compass is its reach).
• "edge of doom" represents infinity (as it implies the end - the furthest point, which can be seen as an infinite concept in the context of the sonnet's discussion of love's endurance).

Answer:

marriage → union
Time's fool → subject to the whims of change
bending sickle's compass → in the range of its impact
edge of doom → infinity