Sonnet 74: but Be Contented When That Fell Arrest
Sonnet 74: but Be Contented When That Fell Arrest - context Summary
Late Sonnet on Mortality
This late sonnet addresses the poet’s impending death and comforts the beloved that his essential self survives. Shakespeare contrasts the worthless, earthly body with the immortalized spirit preserved in his verse. He asks the addressee to view the poem as the part "consecrate to thee," arguing that what remains in memory and love is the true worth, not the corpse claimed by earth and worms.
Read Complete AnalysesBut be contented when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away; My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. When thou reviewest this, thou dost review 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 prey of worms, my body being dead, The coward conquest of a wretch’s knife, Too base of thee to be rememberèd, The worth of that is that which it contains, And that is this, and this with thee remains.
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