The three examples of striking images which Shakespeare uses in his sonnet 116 are:
1. "It is the star to every wandering bark." Love is constant like the bright North Star with which ancient sailors navigated their ships safely and correctly to their destinations. The star is a metaphor which symbolizes the constancy of love.
2. "wandering bark" Here 'bark' which is literally a part of a tree is a metonymy for ship, because in Shakespeare's time there were only wooden ships.
3."his bending sickle" A sickle is a tool used by the farmer to reap the ripened corn. Here sickle is a synecdoche for 'Father Time.' Father time is usually represented as an old man carrying a scythe or a sickle to reap the ripened corn. As men grow old and 'ripen' with age, Father Time cuts us down with his scythe. True love according to Shakespeare is beyond the reach of Father Time's scythe, that is, it will live forever.
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