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Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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The Full Text of “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead”

1No longer mourn for me when I am dead

2Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell

3Give warning to the world that I am fled

4From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:

5Nay, if you read this line, remember not

6The hand that writ it; for I love you so,

7That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,

8If thinking on me then should make you woe.

9O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,

10When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,

11Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,

12But let your love even with my life decay,

13Lest the wise world should look into your moan,

14And mock you with me after I am gone.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Introduction

    • William Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 71" in the 1590s as part of his "Fair Youth" sonnet sequence, which details the speaker's romantic relationship with an anonymous lover (assumed to be a young man). On its own, "Sonnet 71" functions as a love poem in which the speaker urges the lover not to spend too much time in mourning after the speaker dies. Some readers believe that this selfless sentiment isn't genuine and that the speaker actually wants the lover to never move on from their relationship! However, this interpretation largely draws upon elements from other sonnets in the "Fair Youth" sequence, making the argument difficult to defend when analyzing "Sonnet 71" on its own.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Summary

    • Stop grieving my death as soon as the gloomy sound of the church bell stops ringing to announce my departure from this lowly world, which is full of disgusting worms. No, if you read this, don't think of me, since I love you so much that I would rather be forgotten than cause you any sadness in my absence. Oh, if, hypothetically speaking, you read this poem when I am, for instance, surrounded by dirt, don't even utter my name. Instead, let your love for me perish like I have perished. Otherwise, the living world will notice your sorrow and will taunt you with the reminder that I'm gone.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Themes

    • Theme Love, Mourning, and Moving On

      Love, Mourning, and Moving On

      In “Sonnet 71,” the speaker urges a lover not to dwell on the speaker's death and to instead move on with life once the speaker is gone. Failing to do so, the speaker argues, will only bring misery and pain. As such, the speaker prioritizes the lover’s happiness above any desire the speaker might have to be honored in memory. The poem treats this as a deeply romantic gesture, one that demonstrates the speaker's understanding that the lover will have to forget about the speaker in order to lead a fulfilling a life.

      Instead of succumbing to the undoubtedly troubling prospect of dying, the speaker concentrates solely on how the lover will handle this loss. The poem thus takes on an almost sacrificial tone as the speaker insists that it would be better for the lover to stop thinking about the speaker altogether if such thoughts cause pain.

      Indeed, the speaker says, “let your love even with my life decay,” actively telling the lover to let all of their romance deteriorate in the interest of moving on. This, it seems, is how much the speaker cares about the lover—so much that the idea of completely fading from memory after death is tolerable as long as it makes the lover’s life easier.

      On the whole, then, the speaker emerges as someone who only wants the best for a dear loved one, deeply aware of the fact that dwelling on past romance can make it difficult for a person to lead a happy life. In turn, “Sonnet 71” demonstrates not only that moving on after loss is hard but necessary, but also that putting a romantic partner’s happiness above all else is sometimes the most profound and enduring expression of love.

    • Theme The Inevitability of Death and Decay

      The Inevitability of Death and Decay

      “Sonnet 71” mainly focuses on love, but it's also a meditation on the inevitability of death. Rather than resenting mortality, the speaker tries to accepts that there’s no way to avoid death. In fact, the speaker is fairly unemotional when it comes to the inevitable prospect of leaving the world of the living behind. In the same way that it would be futile for the young lover to spend too much time mourning the speaker’s death, the poem implies that it would be futile for the speaker to lament death’s approach because death is little more than a fact of life—something that, though sad, shouldn't be dwelled upon or obsessed over.

      The speaker's unsentimental attitude towards both death and life itself throughout the poem emphasizes the fact that there's little use fretting about the march of time. The speaker treats death and even bodily decay matter-of-factly, evoking stark images of burial and decomposition through references to the "vilest worms" and being "compounded [...] with clay" (i.e., covered with dirt).

      In describing the living world itself as “vile,” the speaker even suggests that dying will free the speaker from the nasty and unpleasantness of life. The speaker perhaps presents life as dirty and unglamorous because doing so makes it easier to embrace the idea of dying; in any case, it's clear that the speaker recognizes that nothing lasts, and that gradual deterioration is both natural and unavoidable.

      In accepting that life itself is characterized by decline and impermanence, the speaker is able to face death head on. The speaker urges the lover to do the same, knowing that feeling sad about the fleeting nature of life is useless.

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead”

    • Lines 1-3

      No longer mourn for me when I am dead
      Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
      Give warning to the world that I am fled

      The opening lines of the poem make use of apostrophe, as the speaker urges an unidentified person to refrain from grieving the speaker's own death for longer than it takes for the funeral bell to stop ringing. Consequently, the first three lines of this sonnet establish that the speaker is unsentimental when it comes to the prospect of dying, preferring to focus on the poem's anonymous addressee (that is, the speaker's beloved) and how this person will cope with the loss. In turn, the speaker emerges as a selfless, thoughtful person.

      At the same time, the speaker subtly acknowledges that the mourning process can be quite sad. This is made evident by the language the speaker uses in line 2, describing the funeral bell as "surly" and "sullen." The word "surly" is an adjective that refers to something that is unpleasant or ill-tempered, and the word "sullen" is generally used to describe something depressing and morose. Accordingly, it's clear that the speaker recognizes that death is usually accompanied by sadness—in fact, it is precisely for this reason that speaker has written this poem, ultimately hoping to relieve the sorrow the lover will surely feel in the aftermath of the speaker's passing.

      This, however, doesn't change the speaker's apparently unemotional acceptance of the fact that life leads to death. Indeed, the matter-of-fact tone in these lines suggests that the speaker has made peace with the idea of leaving behind the world of the living, knowing that all souls will someday "fle[e]" from physical existence.

      Each of these three lines is also characterized by alliteration and sibilance. To that end, the first line features a brief instance of alliteration with the repetition of the /m/ sound ("mourn for me"), whereas the second line repeats the /s/ sound ("surly sullen"), and the third line repeats the /w/ sound ("warning to the world"). On the whole, this creates a measured but musical sound that echoes the sound of the funeral bell tolling away—an effect that is further emphasized by consonance, as the /l/ sound works through the second and third lines:

      Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
      Give warning to the world that I am fled

      In keeping with this musical quality, the poem's first three lines are also written in perfect iambic pentameter, meaning that they each contain five metrical meet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). In combination with the alliteration, sibilance, and consonance, this unbroken rhythm creates a pleasing sound that is somewhat surprising, considering that the speaker is talking about death. And this, in turn, shows readers just how undaunted the speaker is by the prospect of dying.

    • Line 4

      From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;

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    • Lines 5-6

      Nay, if you read this line, remember not
      The hand that writ it;

    • Lines 6-8

      for I love you so,
      That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
      If thinking on me then should make you woe.

    • Lines 9-10

      O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
      When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,

    • Lines 11-12

      Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
      But let your love even with my life decay,

    • Lines 13-14

      Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
      And mock you with me after I am gone.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Apostrophe

      The entire premise of "Sonnet 71" is centered around the use of apostrophe, since the speaker has composed this poem specifically for a lover so that said lover can read it while mourning the speaker's death. In keeping with this, the poem is directly addressed to the lover, whom the speaker has prioritized over all else.

      This is quite common for love poems, which often make use of apostrophe by addressing themselves to an unidentified "you," as if these lovers are the only people who will read the lines. This, in turn, allows other readers (who aren't romantically involved with the speaker) to experience a sense of intimacy and connection with the speaker. In other words, the use of apostrophe draws readers into both the poem and the specific world of the speaker's romantic relationship with the lover in question. This dynamic is very much alive in "Sonnet 71," as the speaker writes the poem with only one person in mind: the lover.

      But the speaker isn't simply interested in celebrating romance. Rather, the speaker has written this poem to help the lover cope with the grief that will inevitably arise in the aftermath of the speaker's own death. This makes the poem's use of apostrophe somewhat unique, as if the entire sonnet isn't just a meditation on love, but an important message meant to reach the lover from beyond the speaker's grave. Accordingly, apostrophe helps the speaker convey a meaningful sentiment that the lover will most likely need to hear in a moment of sadness—namely, that it's futile to spend too much time in mourning.

    • Alliteration

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    • Assonance

    • Consonance

    • End-Stopped Line

    • Repetition

    • Caesura

    • Personification

    • Irony

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Mourn
    • Surly
    • Sullen
    • Vile
    • Dwell
    • Nay
    • Writ
    • Woe
    • Verse
    • Compounded
    • Clay
    • Rehearse
    • Lest
    • Moan
    Mourn

    • To grieve another person's death.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead”

    • Form

      "Sonnet 71" is, of course, a sonnet. More specifically it is a Shakespearean sonnet. Accordingly, its 14 lines are divided into three four-line quatrains followed by a final two-line couplet:

      • Quatrain
      • Quatrain
      • Quatrain
      • Couplet

      The first three quatrains essentially say the same thing: that the lover should not mourn the speaker's death. Line 13 then marks a turning point in the poem (indeed, the final couplet of an English sonnet is called the "turn"), when the speaker says that the world will register the lover's sorrow if the lover doesn't manage to sufficiently move on from mourning the speaker's death. Whereas the first 12 lines of the poem feature a reassuring tone intended to make the lover feel better about the speaker's death, then, the turn introduces the somewhat harsher idea that there will be consequences if the lover doesn't follow the speaker's advice.

    • Meter

      In keeping with the standard sonnet format, "Sonnet 71" is written in iambic pentameter. This means that the majority of the lines contain five iambs, or metrical feet that contain an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). For instance, the first two lines are perfect examples of iambic pentameter:

      No lon- | ger mourn | for me | when I | am dead
      Than you | shall hear | the sur- | ly sul- | len bell

      Although most of the lines after this opening also follow iambic pentameter, not every single one perfectly adheres to this rhythm. In fact, there are several lines that stray from the iambic rhythm (da-DUM) but still count as pentameter because they contain five stresses.

      For example, lines 4 and 13 both feature two non-iambic metrical feet at the beginning of the line. The scansion looks like this:

      Line 4:

      From this | vile world | with vi- | -lest worms | to dwell

      Line 13:

      Lest the | wise world | should look | into | your moan

      In line 4 cases, the first metrical foot is a pyrrhic, meaning that it's made up of two unstressed syllables ("From this"). In line 13, the first foot is a trochee ("Lest the"). In both lines, Next, the second foot is a spondee, which is made up of two stressed syllables ("vile world" and "wise world"). Of course, these aren't the only metrical substitutions in "Sonnet 71," but they are the most interesting, since both lines reference the world but in different ways. Therefore, the fact that they have the same metrical deviations ties them together, effectively highlighting a connection that might otherwise get lost over the course of the poem. In this way, the speaker's use of meter enhances the sonic qualities of the sonnet while calling attention to important parallels.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      "Sonnet 71" follows the standard rhyme scheme of the Elizabethan sonnet, which looks like this:

      ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

      The regularity of this rhyme scheme adds a pleasing sound to the poem. This musical sound contrasts the bleak nature of the subject, since most people wouldn't associate beautiful, soothing sonic qualities with death and heartbreak. And yet, this is a perfect representation of the speaker's unemotional willingness to embrace death as natural and inevitable, choosing to approach mortality in an unsentimental way.

      Furthermore, there are certain rhymes that are less prominent but still notable. For instance, the appearance of the word "say" in the beginning half of line 9 serves as a precursor to "clay," which appears at the end of the next line and then reappears at the end of line 12. By including the word "say" in parentheses in line 9, the speaker enhances the satisfying sense of cohesion that already exists in the rhyme scheme.

      At the same time, though, not all the rhymes in "Sonnet 71" are quite as musical as others. Most notably, the rhyme in the final couplet is a slant rhyme, since "moan" and "gone" aren't perfect rhymes. This means that they only vaguely echo one another, and this has a significant effect on how the poem ends, one that aligns with the fact that the overall tone shifts in the couplet. Indeed, the use of a slant rhyme instead of a perfect rhyme goes against the otherwise pleasing sound that characterizes the poem, and this reflects the speaker's shift from soothing the lover to warning the lover about the negative consequences of mourning for too long.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Speaker

    • Although there is no identifying information about the speaker of "Sonnet 71," many readers and critics turn to other Shakespearean sonnets within the "Fair Youth" sequence to draw conclusions about the speaker. Because there are a number of thematic consistencies that run throughout the 126 sonnets of the "Fair Youth" sequence (including "Sonnet 71"), many people believe that the entire sequence features the same speaker and that this speaker is an aging male poet. Moreover, the general belief is that most of the poems in this sequence are addressed to an anonymous young man with whom the speaker has a romantic relationship. To this day, critics debate whether the speaker is Shakespeare himself and whether this suggests that he had an extramarital affair with a young man.

      Setting aside these theories, though, "Sonnet 71" itself contains very little in the way of identifying information. The only thing that remains clear is that the speaker will—presumably—die before the lover, meaning that the speaker is most likely older than the lover. Beyond that, it is difficult to say anything else about the speaker of "Sonnet 71" without superimposing outside details drawn from either Shakespeare's personal life or the other sonnets in the "Fair Youth" sequence.

  • “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Setting

    • "Sonnet 71" doesn't have a discernible setting, though there are important details about the context in which the poem takes place. To that end, the fact that the speaker expects to die sometime in the near future is noteworthy, especially since the speaker spends the first quatrain imagining the aftermath of a funeral or burial. In this way, the sonnet opens with a hypothetical (or perhaps future) setting, but this fades away when the speaker focuses more specifically on the lover's emotions.

      Having said that, although the exact setting of the poem isn't quite clear, it's worth noting that many readers believe that Shakespeare himself is the speaker of "Sonnet 71" and the other 126 sonnets in the "Fair Youth" sequence. If this is the case, then one might argue that the poem is set in 1590s England—the time and place in which Shakespeare composed these sonnets. In fact, even if Shakespeare is not the speaker, it makes sense to situate this poem in the context of late 16th-century England, since it follows the standard structure of the Elizabethan sonnet, which was wildly popular in England during that time.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead”

      Literary Context

      Shakespeare is perhaps best known for his many plays, but the 154 sonnets he wrote during his lifetime are also extremely well-respected in the world of literature. Of course, "Sonnet 71" is related to the other 154 Shakespearean sonnets known to exist, but it also engages with the broader literary landscape of Renaissance poetry. In the 1300s, the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch began writing sonnets in a form now known as the Petrarchan sonnet. These sonnets focused primarily on love and desire, two fascinations that ultimately ended up fueling the vast majority of sonnets written during the Renaissance period.

      Whereas Petrarchan sonnets are comprised of an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet, though, the Shakespearean sonnet includes three four-line quatrains followed by a final couplet. To go along with this, the Shakespearean rhyme scheme differs from that of the Petrarchan sonnet. All in all, since "Sonnet 71" adheres to the standard structure of a Shakespearean sonnet, it is a perfect example of how the sonnet evolved between the 1300s and the late 1500s.

      "Sonnet 71" belongs to Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sonnet sequence, which includes the first 126 of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. This sequence explores the many joys, nuances, and difficulties of love and desire. Most readers believe that the speaker is the same aging male poet throughout the entire sequence and that the sonnets are addressed to a young man with whom the poet is romantically involved.

      And though each sonnet is capable of standing on its own as a unique and individual poem, it's also worth noting that the "Fair Youth" sequence leads into what is generally known as the "Dark Lady" sequence, in which the young lover drifts away from the poet after starting a romantic relationship with a woman (who is referred to in the sonnet sequence as the "Dark Lady"). In this section, the speaker struggles with his own conflicted feelings about the "Dark Lady."

      Historical Context

      As far as the history of England goes, the 1590s—the period during which most scholars believe Shakespeare wrote his sonnets—were remarkably calm. The British victory in the Spanish Armada of 1588 left the kingdom in high spirits, and there weren't yet any signs of new unrest or violence. Of course, the plague returned to London in 1592 and 1593 and killed 15,000 citizens, but the only political, crown-related concern was that Queen Elizabeth was aging and had never married or given birth to heirs. And though this was certainly a serious concern at the time, it didn't overshadow the fact that the period was primarily marked by a flourishing of the arts. Indeed, without wars to focus on, England was able to foster a vital artistic tradition, and this not only enabled writers like Shakespeare to work prolifically, but also created a culture in which their work was valued and encouraged.

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