Sonnet 74

But be contented when that fell arest,

Without all bayle shall carry me away,

My life hath in this line some interest,

Which for memoriall still with thee shall stay.

When thou revewest this, thou doest revew

The very part was consecrate to thee,

The earth can have but earth, which is his due,

My spirit is thine the better part of me,

So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,

The pray of wormes, my body being dead,

The coward conquest of a wretches knife,

Too base of thee to be remembred.

The worth of that, is that which it containes,

And that is this, and this with thee remaines.

Commentary

Address to his beloved

Changes to the original text: end of line 5, comma deleted; line 12, 'to' changed to 'too'

In the first quatrain, the poet tells his beloved to accept when death (arest withoutall bayle) arrives to take him (the poet) away, his verse (this line), at least, will stay with the beloved.

In the second quatrain, the poet affirms that when the beloved reviews these verses, he reviews his (the poet's) very spirit. His body may be buried (the earth can have but earth), but his (the poet's) spirit remains with the beloved.

In the third quatrain, the poet reassures his beloved that he has only lost the dregs in losing his (the poet's) body. The poet is dying because he (the poet) was stabbed by a 'wretch'. An alternative reading of this line would postulate that the 'wretches knife' is in fact time's scythe, though, as far as I know, time has never been represented with a knife. In the final couplet, the poet, still able to play with words despite his wound, affirms simply that all the worth of the body (the worth of that) lies in what it contains (is that which it contains, ie the spirit), and it is the spirit that (that is this) remains with the beloved (and this with thee remains).

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