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

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

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

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  Love, Mourning, and Moving On

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• 

  The Inevitability of Death and Decay

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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

  

  

  

  

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• 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;

  

  

  

  

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• 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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

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

  

  

  

  

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

• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Irony

  

  

  

  

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“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

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

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

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

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

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

More “Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead” Resources

• External Resources

  • 1609 Facsimile — If you're curious about what it would have been like to read Shakespeare when he was still alive, take a look at this copy of "Sonnet 71," shown exactly as it was when it was published in a 1609.

  • A Dramatic Reading — Listen to a dramatic reading of "Sonnet 71" by the actor David Tennant.

  • Shakescleare Translations — Explore all of Shakespeare's sonnets (including "Sonnet 71") in our understandable, modern translations.

  • The Bard's Life — Learn more about Shakespeare's life and work in this concise yet comprehensive biographical overview.

  • The Sonnets — The British Library put together this brief but helpful explanation of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets and the way they relate to one another.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare

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  • Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame

  • Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time

  • Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

  • Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

  • Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes

  • Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still

  • Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  • Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

  • Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted

  • Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

  • Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

  • Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

  • Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen

  • Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

  • Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments

  • Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore

  • Sonnet 65 ("Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea")

  • Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

  • Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"