SONNET 71	PARAPHRASE
No longer mourn for me when I am dead	You can mourn for me when I am dead, but no longer
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell	Than when you hear the solemn-sounding bell*
Give warning to the world that I am fled	Announce to the world that I have gone
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:	From this vile world, to live with the worms (in the grave):
Nay, if you read this line, remember not	If you read this line, do not remember
The hand that writ it; for I love you so	The hand that wrote it; for I love you so much
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot	That I would rather you forget me completely
If thinking on me then should make you woe.	If thinking about me when I am gone would make you upset.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse	O, if you look upon this sonnet
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,	When my body has become mixed with the dust and dirt,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.	Do not even mention my insignificant name.
But let your love even with my life decay,	But let your love decay in the same way that my life rots away,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan	So that the malicious people in world do not pry into your grief
And mock you with me after I am gone.	And use your relationship with me to mock you after I am dead.
*At funerals during the Renaissance, one could pay to have the "passing-bell" rung as many times as the deceased was alive, as a tribute to his or her life.