Section 8 Summary

Sonnet 67: A morbid sensitivity to the imminent death of a friend suffuses this sonnet with en elegiac quality. Identified only as "he," the poet asks why someone of noble spirit should be dying from "infection" caused by "sin" that is graced by his involvement. Nature, though, awaits his corpse.

Sonnet 68: Shakespeare says his deceased friend has been reabsorbed into nature as a model, or a template of pure beauty that is genuine. His cheeks recorded the days of his life "when beauty lived and died as flowers do now." There should be no effort to dress up his body, the poet says.

Sonnet 69: The poet addresses himself to his dying friend, telling him that although he's been praised in many languages by many people, none fully appreciates "the beauty of thy mind" or the scope of his deeds. Common people who don't understand his friend's "fair flower...