Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 72 |
1.
task you to recite: place upon you the task of reciting.
2-3
What merit liv'd in me, that you should love / After my death: i.e., what virtue I had when I lived, that would make you love me even after I died.
4.
prove: demonstrate by evidence.
5.
virtuous lie: lie about my virtue; and/or lie motived by good intentions.
6.
mine own desert: what I really deserve.
8.
niggard: stingy.
10.
untrue: untruly.
13.
I am sham'd by that which I bring forth: Perhaps "that which I bring forth" is the love poetry that the poet has addressed to his beloved.