Sonnet 71: No Longer Mourn For Me When I Am Dead Poem by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 71: No Longer Mourn For Me When I Am Dead

Rating: 2.1


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
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.
Nay if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Michael Walker 31 July 2019

He does not want people to mourn him when he dies, when he is gone 'from this vile world with vilest worms to dwell'. He does not want the lad to show his grief in case the world 'should mock you with me after I am gone. An unforgettable sonnet-brilliant.

1 0 Reply
Fabrizio Frosini 02 April 2016

in ITALIAN: quando sarò morto, piangetemi soltanto per tutto il tempo in cui udrete lugubri, solenni rintocchi annunziare alle genti che io son fuggito da questo mondo vile per eleggere dimora insieme con i vermi più vili; anzi, se leggerete questi versi non ricordate la mano che li scrisse; poiché io vi amo tanto che vorrei non esser ricordato nei vostri dolci pensieri, se il pensare a me dovesse allora rendervi triste. Oh, se, ripeto, scorrerete con l'occhio questi versi quando io sarò forse commisto alla creta, non vogliate neppure pronunziare il mio povero nome, ma lasciate che l'amor vostro si spenga insieme con la mia vita. Per timore che la gente saggia non debba analizzare i vostri lamenti e beffarsi insieme di noi e di me quando io non sarò più. (translation by L. Darchini)

21 0 Reply
Brian Jani 26 April 2014

Awesome I like this poem, check mine out

1 2 Reply
Karla Ferrel 18 January 2008

If you read this poem backwards the flow is better.

1 3 Reply
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