This is a short summary of Shakespeare sonnet 76. 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 76 (Original Text)

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.

–WIKI

Shakespeare Sonnet 76 Modern Text (Translation)

Shakespeare Sonnet 76 Analysis

The poet says why is his poetry lacking in new ideas “Why is my verse so barren of new pride, “and reflecting a sense of rigidity lacking variety “So far from variation” and change; “or quick change” he asks why with time “Why with the time” he doesn’t evolve to implement new methods “do I not glance aside” and literary styles that may seem new to comprehend “new-found methods and to compounds strange”

He asks himself why he writes the same thing “Why write I still all one” in the same fixed styles “ever the same” that has come to be representative of him, “And keep invention in a noted weed “where every word he writes reveals who wrote the piece and its origins which prove he has written it “all my best is dressing old words new”

He exclaims to the fair youth calling him sweet love “O know, sweet love” that he always writes about him “I always write of you,” where he says the fair youth and love are his favorite subjects “And you and love are still my argument.” and he is best at finding new ways to write about the same subjects “So all my best is dressing old words new” and writing the same thing which he already wrote before “Spending again what is already spent:”

And just as the sun rises as something new and again sets as something old, “For as the sun is daily new and old, “so is his love expressed in his poetry that narrates the same thing which is old “So is my love still telling what is told.”