Sonnet 74
But be contented: when that fell arrest
mortality
spirit
memory
poetry
But 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 remembered.
The worth of that is that which it contains,
And that is this, and this with thee remains.
What It Means
When Shakespeare dies, the young man should be comforted. The best part of him — his spirit — isn't in his body. His body is just mortal flesh. The spirit, the memorial, lives in the young man. The poem is what's truly him. When you read it, you have the best of what he was. This is the most optimistic of the death-meditation sonnets.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence, the conclusion to the death group (71–74).
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