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By: Garin Kilpatrick

Sonnet 76 is a Shakespearean Sonnet that shares a striking thematic semblance to his much longer poem A Lover’s Complaint. The Theme of Sonnet 76 is youth and in within the Sonnet Shakespeare does a candid job of confronting his ability to spin his own style by Spending again what is already spent.

Sonnet 76 mirrors Shakespeare’s A lover’s complaint by touching on the themes of youth and love. Despite sharing the same themes as A Lovers Complaint, Sonnet 76 has managed to do so without quite as much controversy. A Lovers Complaint was so controversial that Slate.com Author Ron Rosenbaum even questioned should “A Lover’s Complaint” be kicked out of the canon? I disagree with Ron and the idea that abolishing any of Shakespeare’s work from the Shakespearean canon could be a good thing.

My impression of the impact of Shakespeare is more along the lines of this quote attributed to Ben Johnson:

“He was not for an age, but for all time.”

The sonnet below is no timid example of Shakespeare’s timelessness.

Note: “of youth and love” is a description, not the original title of this poem

Sonnet #76

Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O! know sweet love I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.

Further Analysis

See this post for a Quatrain by Quatrain Analysis of this Sonnet.