Sonnet · Childhood
Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight
1As a decrepit father takes delight
2To see his active child do deeds of youth,
3So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite,
4Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth;
5For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
6Or any of these all, or all, or more,
7Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit,
8I make my love engrafted, to this store:
9So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis'd,
10Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give
11That I in thy abundance am suffic'd,
12And by a part of all thy glory live.
13 Look what is best, that best I wish in thee:
14 This wish I have; then ten times happy me!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-37
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight
- Poet
- William Shakespeare
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Childhood, Love
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Shakespeare1564–1616
- Source record
- PoetryDBSonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight by william-shakespeare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 ef1a292362a9d4c2…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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