Shakespeare Sonnet 31 Analysis, Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts

This is a short summary of Shakespeare sonnet 31. 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.

Shakespeare Sonnet 31 ORIGINAL TEXT

Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts

Which I, by lacking, have supposèd dead;

And there reigns love, and all love’s loving parts,

And all those friends which I thought burièd.

How many a holy and obsequious tear

Hath dear religious love stol’n from mine eye

As interest of the dead, which now appear

But things removed that hidden in thee lie.

Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,

Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,

Who all their parts of me to thee did give;

That due of many now is thine alone.

Their images I loved I view in thee,

And thou, all they, hast all the all of me.

WIKI

Shakespeare Sonnet 31 MODERN TEXT (Translation)

Shakespeare Sonnet 31 Analysis

Shakespeare tells his friend that he has the love of everyone who loved him “bosom is endeared with all hearts,” and since he didn’t have their love anymore, he presumed them to be dead “lacking have supposed dead;” And they now reside in his friends heart “there reigns love” and everything concerned with love “all love’s loving parts” including the friends who he thought were dead and buried “which I thought buried”.

He asks his friends how many tears has the love of others residing in his heart stolen from him “religious love stolen from mine eye” comparing tears to payment for the dead “interest of the dead” but instead all these people who were missing from his life “things removed” were actually hidden in his friends heart “that hidden in thee lie”

He compares his friend’s heart to a grave “thou art the grave” for the dead people he once loved “buried love doth live” His friend’s heart now contains decorations of memories of his lost lovers “trophies of my lovers gone”. They have filled his friend’s heart with the love he owed them “all their parts of me to thee did give” and whatever love he owed to others now belongs to his friend “due of many now is thine alone”

He sees all his past lovers in his friend “Their images I lov’d I view in thee”, And, that his friend has all this love locked in his heart including the love of the poet “ thou (all they) hast all the all of me.”