"Sonnet 87"

Shakespearean sonnets contain three four-line stanzas which are called quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet. Shakespeare uses the first twelve lines to present a problem, idea, or situation and then resolves or emphasizes it in the final couplet. In Shakespeare's "Sonnet 87" he stays true to this form. In the first three quatrains the speaker presents the situation of having to bid farewell to the youth but clarifies it in the final couplet. <Tab/&…

…that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my patent back again is swerving. Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking; So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgment making. Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, In sleep a king, but waking no such matter."