Sonnet · Love

Sonnet 72: O! lest the world should task you to recite

by William Shakespeare

Reading room

1O! lest the world should task you to recite

2What merit lived in me, that you should love

3After my death, — dear love, forget me quite,

4For you in me can nothing worthy prove;

5Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,

6To do more for me than mine own desert,

7And hang more praise upon deceased I

8Than niggard truth would willingly impart:

9O! lest your true love may seem false in this

10That you for love speak well of me untrue,

11My name be buried where my body is,

12And live no more to shame nor me nor you.

13 For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,

14 And so should you, to love things nothing worth.

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“Sonnet 72: O! lest the world should task you to recite” by William Shakespeare — quilloak.com/poems/sonnet-72

Quick facts

Poem: Sonnet 72: O! lest the world should task you to recite
Poet: William Shakespeare
Length: 14 lines
Form: Sonnet
Themes: Love, Death & Loss

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).

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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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 72: O! lest the world should task you to recite 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 13dd1be01a96d8b5…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Sonnet Love Death & Loss

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