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The speaker requests that at his death all mourning should be kept to a minimum, because he fears that leaving loved ones in sorrow is beneath his stature.
First Quatrain: “No longer mourn for me when I am dead”In the first quatrain of sonnet 71, the speaker addresses a listener and requests a favor from that person. The speaker asks the listener to abbreviate all mourning for him after the speaker dies. The mourning period should last only as long as it takes for the “surly sullen bell” to ring. That “warning” bell will announce to the world the death of the speaker, and it will remind the world that the speaker’s body has gone “with vilest worms to dwell.” The speaker expresses contempt for the world in this poem when he calls it “this vile world.” That world refers to the nasty critics and charlatans the speaker has castigated in his earlier sonnets. Even as the world is full of vile people, however, his body will be subjected to an even worse fate as it joins the “vilest worms.” But the speaker predicts that that body will “dwell” among those worms, instead of creating the image of being consumed by them as is customary. Second Quatrain: “Nay, if you read this line, remember not”In the second quatrain, the speaker further requests of the listener that the person not even remember that the poet/speaker wrote the lines the listener might be reading. The speaker asserts that he loves the listener so much that the thought of that listener remembering and feeling sorrow at the poet/speaker’s death would be too much pain for the speaker to bear. The speaker wants to eliminate as much pain and sorrow from his life as possible. He creates his art as a testimonial to his talent, and he almost always insists that love is his main topic along with beauty. Thus assuaging the grief of loved one before his death becomes a loving service for his art. Third Quatrain: “O! if,—I say, you look upon this verse”The speaker dramatizes a further request of the listener: if the listener happens to read his verse, the speaker demands that the person not say the speaker’s name, but “let your love even with my life decay.” The speaker wants the listener to shed all emotion and thought of the speaker so that listener will not be burdened by sorrow at the death of the speaker, and repeating his name would make forgetting even more difficult. The Couplet: “Lest the wise world should look into your moan”The couplet provides an additional reason for the speaker’s strange requests: the speaker fears that if the listener mourns openly the death of the speaker, people, that is, “the wise world” will “mock you with me after I am gone.” The speaker now is rationalizing to achieve a practical reason for making such a strange request, yet his selfish demand may still be interpreted as altruistic as he takes into consideration the feelings of his listener. Other Shakespeare articles: Who is Shakespeare? Sonnet Commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 96, 116, 126, 130, 138, 146
The copyright of the article Shakespeare Sonnet 71 in British Poetry is owned by Linda Sue Grimes. Permission to republish Shakespeare Sonnet 71 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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