Sonnet 72
O, lest the world should task you to recite
mortality
self-deprecation
love
legacy
O, lest the world should task you to recite
What merit lived in me, that you should love
After my death, dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove;
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
O, lest your true love may seem false in this,
That you for love speak well of me untrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.
What It Means
Even more self-deprecating than Sonnet 71. When Shakespeare is dead, the young man might feel compelled to say something good about him — but there's nothing to say that wouldn't be a lie. His worth was never great. Don't invent virtues for him. The only thing Shakespeare ever had worth praising was his love, and that's not something you can show the world. Better to say nothing.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence, second in the death meditation group (71–74).
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