![]() ![]() So, where does this leave us in ascertaining the true meaning of Sonnet 71, if there is a particular way we are supposed to respond to it? Don Paterson, in his Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets, likens this to the ‘Don’t think of an elephant’ command beloved of psychologists, whereby you are guaranteed to think of nothing but large pachyderms when you are given such an instruction. Stephen Booth, in his stimulating commentary Shakespeare’s Sonnets, criticises Sonnet 71 for being inconsistent and contradictory: Shakespeare tells his beloved to forget him when he’s gone, but does so in a poem that is guaranteed to ensure the Fair Youth continues to remember the poet. Sonnet 71 seems straightforward in its meaning, but it has attracted very different reactions and interpretations. Otherwise, the world would see you mourning and weeping for me, and ridicule you, as they ridicule me for being in love for you and writing these verses.’ No, when I lie dead and am clad in the clay of the earth, and you read my poetry, don’t even think of my name – instead, let your love die with me. If you should read this poem when I am gone, don’t remember the poet who wrote it, because I love you and it would make me sad to think that you would be sad to remember me. Lest the wise world should look into your moan,įirst, a brief paraphrase of what Sonnet 71 actually says: ‘Don’t mourn for me, Fair Youth, when I’m dead: as soon as the bell has stopped tolling to announce my departure from the world, stop thinking about me as I leave the horrible world behind to go and dwell with the vile worms in the ground. If thinking on me then should make you woe.īut let your love even with my life decay That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, The hand that writ it, for I love you so, Than you shall hear the surly sullen bellįrom this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
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