This is a short summary of Shakespeare sonnet 112. Continue reading for complete analysis and meaning in the modern text. For the complete list of 154 sonnets, check the collection of Shakespeare Sonnets with analysis. It is highly recommended to buy “The Monument” by Hank Whittemore, which is the best book on Shakespeare Sonnets

Shakespeare Sonnet 112 (Original Text)

Your love and pity doth th’ impression fill

Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow;

For what care I who calls me well or ill,

So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow?

You are my all the world, and I must strive

To know my shames and praises from your tongue;

None else to me, nor I to none alive,

That my steeled sense or changes right or wrong.

In so profound abysm I throw all care

Of others’ voices, that my adder’s sense

To critic and to flatt’rer stoppèd are.

Mark how with my neglect I do dispense:

You are so strongly in my purpose bred

That all the world besides methinks y’are dead.

–WIKI

Shakespeare Sonnet 112 Modern Text (Translation)

-via SparkNotes

Shakespeare Sonnet 112 Analysis

The poet tells the fair lord that his love and pity on the poet makes a good impression “your love and pity doth th’ impression fill” and makes amends for the scandals that have spoilt his reputation “Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow; even though he doesn’t really care what people think of him “For what care I who calls me well or ill”, as long as the fair lord is there to judge his bad and good behavior “So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow?”

He says the youth is his entire world and he must make an effort “You are my all the world, and I must strive” to learn the good and bad things about himself “To know my shames and praises from your tongue;” he says no one matters to him and he does not matter to people living “None else to me, nor I to none alive, the fair lord’s opinion is strong enough to determine right from wrong “That my steeled sense or changes right or wrong.

The poet says that into the abyss (bottomless pit) he will throw everyone’s opinions as he cares nothing for them “In so profound abysm I throw all care” he says of the opinions of others his sense s are oblivious “Of others’ voices, that my adder’s sense” to criticism and flattery “To critic and to flatt’rer stoppèd are” he tells the fair lord to watch how he reacts to the world who neglects him “Mark how with my neglect I do dispense:”

The fair lord is firmly entrenched in his mind and soul “You are so strongly in my purpose bred” that he is the entire world to the poet and the others are all dead to him “That all the world besides methinks y’are dead.”