No longer mourn for me when I am dead

Question 1

The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet that consists of an ____ (two quatrains) and a ____ (one quatrain and a rhyming couplet).

Answer 1

octave

sestet

Question 2

What effect did the octave have?

Answer 2

The octave presents the issue of the need to forget the poet after he is dead while the sestet does not necessarily provide a resolution but does clarify why it
is important that the youth forget him.

Question 3

What is the purpose of three quatrains?

Answer 3

The purpose of the three quatrains is to persuade the young man – the Earl of Southampton - that Shakespeare addresses in this sonnet, to forget about him.

Question 4

What does rhyming couplet reveal?

Answer 4

The rhyming couplet reveals the reason for his assertions which is that he may be mocked for the love he had for the poet.

Question 5

Why are sonnets 71-74 grouped together?

Answer 5

Sonnets 71-74 are usually grouped together and focus on Shakespeare’s own mortality.

Question 6

Shakespeare was the older man in his relationship with the Earl of Southhampton, and, believing he will die before him, he creates this sonnet as a way to ___ him.

Answer 6

console

Question 7

It is evident as we read the many sonnets focused on the ____ of time that Shakespeare was consumed by a profound _____ brought about by his
persistent thoughts on loss and death.

Answer 7

ravages

melancholy

Question 8

Even his lover cannot release him from the ____ that comes with knowing he will die, and “with vilest worms to dwell.”

The couplet reveals the poet’s intense ____ and anxiety over his relationship with the Earl, as he fears that their friends will mock his lover’s affection for him, suggesting that it shows the lover’s lack of good taste and judgment.

Answer 8

sadness

insecurity

Question 9

What is the mood?

Answer 9

The mood is elegiac (mournful or sad) which is appropriate for the subject matter of the poem.

Question 10

What is the significance of the use of the first-person?

Answer 10

The use of the first-person enhances the authenticity of this sonnet.

Question 11

What does the poem begin?

Answer 11

The poet begins with a direct address and an imperative telling his young lover not ‘to mourn’ for him when he is dead.

Question 12

What does the reference to the ‘surly sullen bell’ reinforce?

Answer 12

The reference to the ‘surly sullen bell’ reinforces the slow rhythm which is associated with the death knell which is rung to mark someone’s passing. Those who mourned the dead could pay to have the bell rung as many times as the person was alive as a tribute to the dead.

Question 13

The alliteration of the ‘s’ evokes the ____ of the bell as it is run in memory of the dead person.

Answer 13

solemnness

Question 14

What will the bell serve to announce?

Answer 14

The bell will serve to announce his death shown by ‘I am fled from this vile world’.

Question 15

What does the line ‘vile world’ echo?

Answer 15

Perhaps this ‘vile world’ echoes his melancholy at the thought of his mortality and having to leave his lover.

Question 16

He conveys a sense of ____ conveyed by ‘vilest worms to dwell’ which evokes images of him decomposing in the earth while ‘vilest worms’ co-exist with him.

Answer 16

futility

Question 17

The second quatrain begins with an ____ , ‘Nay’.

Answer 17

assertive

Question 18

What is his tone?

Answer 18

He has a decisive, adamant tone to convince his love that he should not remember him.

Question 19

He wants him to forget ‘the hand that writ’ this line and continues by exhorting that he in his ‘sweet thoughts should be forgot’ as he does not want him to ____ and experience feelings of ‘woe’ (sorrow).

Answer 19

mourn

Question 20

What does he want the Earl to forget?

Answer 20

He wants the Earl of Southampton to forget his love as he does not want him to experience pain and sorrow after his death. He shows his love for the Earl by commanding him to forget him rather than replacing his affectionate memory of the poet with feelings of ‘woe’.

Question 21

What does he suggest to the Earl in line 9?

Answer 21

He suggests to the Earl that even if he looks ‘upon this verse’ when he is buried in the earth – ‘compounded am with clay’ he should not think of him or mourn him as their love must die with the poet’s death.

Question 22

What does he want in terms of the memory of his name?

Answer 22

He wants the memory of his name to die with his death, so that his lover does ‘not so much as my poor name rehearse’.

Question 23

The poet seems ___-____ here by suggesting that the Earl’s love should with his ‘life decay’.

Answer 23

self-sacrificing

Question 24

What does he succeed in immortalising?

Answer 24

He also succeeds in immortalising their love by writing a poem in which he demands that his lover forget him.

Question 25

Is there a self-indulgent element in the poem?

Answer 25

There does appear to be a self-indulgent element to this poem as Shakespeare was concerned about his own mortality and imagines having to leave his love behind when he dies.

Question 26

What are there accounts of in terms of Shakespeare and the Earl?

Answer 26

There are accounts that suggest that Shakespeare was more infatuated with the Earl than the young man was with him.

Thus, Shakespeare can be considered quite presumptuous when commanding the young man
to forget him after his death as there is no guarantee that the Earl reciprocates his feelings with the same passion.

Question 27

His self-sacrificing aspect is evident here when he states that he wants to spare the young man the_____ of the ‘wise world’ who may wonder at his grief suggested by ‘moan’.

Answer 27

intrusiveness

Question 28

He wants to save the Earl’s ____ rather than risk him being mocked for his relationship with Shakespeare after he is ‘gone’.

Answer 28

reputation

Question 29

What is the tone of the poem?

Answer 29

The tone of the poem is melancholy and depressed – there is an attitude of futility because he cannot defy time, old age or his looming mortality.

Question 30

What is the rhythm of the sonnet?

Answer 30

The rhythm of the sonnet is slow which enhances the mood of hopelessness and melancholy.

Question 31

What is the effect of the use of commas in the sonnet?

Answer 31

The use of commas in the sonnet slows the rhythm down even more and the parenthesis highlights that he is contemplating what may happen in the future after his death.