Sonnet 71
Noe longer mourne for me when I am dead,
Then you shall heare the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest wormes to dwell:
Nay if you read this line, remember not,
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O if (I say) you looke upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poore name reherse;
But let your love even with my life decay.
Least the wise world should looke into your mone,
And mocke you with me after I am gon.
Commentary
Address to his beloved
In the first quatrain, the poet requests his beloved not to mourn him when he is dead.
In the second quatrain, the poet observes that he loves his beloved so much that he does not want him (his beloved) to suffer (make you woe) because of his (the poet's) death.
In the third quatrain, the poet urges his beloved to let his (the beloved's) love decay with his (the poet's) death.
In the final couplet, the poet gives his reasons: he does not want his beloved to be mocked by the world for his concern over his dead lover.