Theme:      After I'm Dead
Content:    Shakespeare again expressing his concern for the welfare of his subject and putting himself down, betraying the modesty of the man as manifested throughout the sonnets (with the possible exception of Sonnet 62). His preoccupation with death features again as do several other related motifs and repeated reference to, and representations of, his own name.

• "Lover, mourn for me for no longer than it takes for my funeral bell to toll."
• Alliteration features in each line: mourn me; surly sullen; warning...world; vile world...vilest worms.
• Mid-line rhymes feature in lines 1 & 3: mourn with warn.
• vile and worms appear again as they both do in several other sonnets.
• I and You are the two most frequent words in this sonnet emphasising the author and the subject as the central matter of the sonnet.
• Probable pun via assonance on the author's name, William, via when I am, especially when preceded by the definitive "me", and this sonnet's repeated "me...me...me...me...me" subject matter.
  
• Possible further pun via assonance on the author's name, William, via world that I am.
• Probable further references to the author's name in with vilest worms to dwell. The author's first name, Will, is embedded in with vilest and more explicitly heard and seen in well.
  

• "Lover, don't be hurt by grieving for me."
• The softened tone of this quatrain is aided by extensive use of words beginning with th: this...the...that...that...thoughts...thinking...then.

• "Don't grieve for me when I've gone."
• Opens with triple vowel-alliteration: O, if I.
• Consonant-alliteration continues with: compounded...clay, much...my, let...love...life.
• Probable further reference to the author's name, William, in When I perhaps compounded am with clay. In this line the author is specifically "compounding" the words "When I" with "am" creating, via assonance, the name William, as in the first quatrain. The word "perhaps" qualifies this as an assonant version of "William" rather than an explicit one, as one would find in a cryptic crossword clue, i.e. the word William can be found dependent on how one pronounces when I am. In the Quarto, "perhaps" is bracketed, specifically separating that word from those that the author is specifically saying should be compounded. With clay then literally compounds the author's first name Will in the clay of his grave: with clay.
• As if to remove all doubt as to the author's repeated reference to his own name being compounded in this sonnet he says: Do not so much as my poor name rehearse, i.e. in literally "looking upon this verse" you will see the author's name embedded in it.
• Probable reference to the author's first name again in with my life.  When that phrase "decays" then one would be left with no "life" and no "Will".
  

• Neatly summarises the theme of the whole sonnet.
• Alliteration continues with wise...world, moan...mock, after I am.
• Probable reference to the author's first name again in wise world.
• Probable reference to the author's first name again in with me after I am. The name has now started to decay but is still traceable in wi..iam.