Sonnet · Fair Youth Sonnets

Sonnet 87

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,

And like enough thou know’st thy estimate,

The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;

My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?

And for that riches where is my deserving?

The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,

And so my patent back again is swerving.

Thyself thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing,

Or me to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking;

So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,

Comes home again, on better judgement making.

Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,

In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

What it's about

The speaker accepts the end of a relationship with brutal clarity, framing it as a kind of waking up. He wasn't worthy of the fair youth's love; the youth either didn't know their own worth or miscalculated his character. The bond was always conditional on the youth's choice, and that choice is being unmade. It's less bitter than resigned.

In plain English

You're too valuable for me to own — you must know your own worth by now. That knowledge is your release from me. Any claim I had on you is finished. I only ever held you because you let me, and I have nothing to deserve such a gift. The reason you gave yourself to me is gone now.

You gave yourself without fully understanding your own value, or you misjudged who I was. That great gift, built on a mistake, is coming back to you as you see things more clearly. I had you like a dream flatters the sleeper — I was a king in that dream, but I wake to nothing.

Lines that stick

  • Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
  • In sleep a king, but waking no such matter

Themes

  • loss
  • unworthiness
  • transience
  • self-deception
In the app

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