Sonnet Reflection: 87

Sonnet 87 appears to be a very personal sonnet about Shakespeare and how he treasures the young man.  In sonnet 87, the speaker says goodbye to the young man because he believes the man is too good for him.  Shakespeare writes that the beauty of the young man makes him too valuable to hold on too.  He says the young man has every right to leave because he is worth so much.  He cannot justify being able to cherish something so valuable because he doesn’t view himself as worthy.  In line 10, Shakespeare writes “Thy self thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me, to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking”.  He believes the only reason that he ever had the young man to treasure was because the young man didn’t know how great he was, or he didn’t know how great Shakespeare wasn’t.  In line 12 he says that now he must give the great gift that is the young man back now that the young man is able to make better judgments.  Lastly, the couplet reads “Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter, In sleep a king, but waking no such matter”.  Here, Shakespeare sums up how he feels by saying that when he had the man, he felt like he was grand.  At last he realized this was not so, and could never be so.  In this sonnet it seems as if Shakespeare pities himself.