Summary

Sonnet 37, which echoes Sonnet 36, conveys the emotions of a doting parent and discontinues the confessional mode of the previous sonnets. “As a decrepit father takes delight / To see his active child do deeds of youth,” the poet takes comfort in the youth’s superlative qualities, and wishes “what is best,” for the youth. If the youth then has the best, the poet will be ten times happier. Separated from the young man, the poet now is content merely to hear other people’s favorable opinions of the youth: “So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite, / Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.” Sadly, the poet seems to be living through the young man rather than for himself.