Sonnet 32: If Thou Survive My Well-contented Day
Sonnet 32: If Thou Survive My Well-contented Day - meaning Summary
Love Outlasts Poetic Skill
Shakespeare’s speaker imagines his death and asks a surviving beloved to read his humble lines in later times. He concedes future poets will write superior verse but urges that his worth lies not in technique but in the fidelity of his love. The poem balances acceptance of mortality and cultural change with a plea that personal affection preserve his memory above literary fashion.
Read Complete AnalysesIf thou survive my well-contented day When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover, And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceasèd lover, Compare them with the bett’ring of the time, And though they be outstripped by every pen, Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme, Exceeded by the height of happier men. O, then vouchsafe me but this loving thought: Had my friend’s Muse grown with this growing age, A dearer birth than this his love had brought To march in ranks of better equipage; But since he died and poets better prove, Theirs for their style I’ll read, his for his love.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.