Sonnet 87

Estrangement and Return

Notes

TLN 1205wordplay
“too dear for my possessing”
'Dear' carries two meanings at once: costly or expensive (too high-priced for the poet to afford) and beloved (too cherished to hold). The pun runs through the whole sonnet, which treats love as a transaction the poet cannot sustain.
TLN 1206archaic vocab
“thou know'st thy estimate”
'Estimate' means the assessed value or market worth of something — the youth knows exactly what he is worth, and the poet cannot afford it. The word is drawn from commercial valuation, not personal self-esteem.
TLN 1212archaic vocab
“my patent back again is swerving”
A 'patent' is an exclusive right granted by a crown or authority — in Elizabethan England, letters patent gave monopoly rights to trade, offices, or land. Here the poet's 'patent' is his entitlement to the youth's love; since there was never any real warrant for it, the patent is reverting ('swerving back') to its source.
TLN 1215archaic vocab
“upon misprision growing”
'Misprision' is a legal term for a mistake or misunderstanding — specifically, a failure to recognize the true value of something. The youth's gift of himself was 'upon misprision growing,' meaning it grew from an error in judgment: he did not know his own worth, or the poet's unworthiness, when he gave himself.