SONNET - 37 SUMMARY

 Sonnet No 37:

As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth;
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give
That I in thy abundance am sufficed,
And by a part of all thy glory live.
   Look what is best, that best I wish in thee:
   This wish I have; then ten times happy me!

 This sonnet 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." A Sadly, the poet seems to be living through the young man rather than for himself.

Reference: shakespeare-sonnets.com