The speaker imagines a frail, aging father watching his lively child, delighted by youthful energy he can no longer feel himself. That’s the exact tenderness he brings to the friend he addresses. Feeling cheated and crippled by fortune, he instead draws all his comfort from the friend’s worth and honesty. Beauty, noble birth, wealth, wit — whatever gifts the friend possesses, the speaker grafts his own love onto that rich stock, so the friend’s abundance fills his own sense of lack. As long as that reflected “shadow” gives him substance, he can forget he ever felt lame or poor. There’s no envy here, only a quiet, grateful basking in someone else’s light. The closing couplet seals the mood: he simply wishes the best for the beloved, and since he already has that wish, he feels ten times blessed. The whole poem hums with gentle, self-effacing happiness — a love so absorbed in another’s flourishing that it forgets its own hardships.
Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight — Summary
As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth; For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, Or any of these all, or all, or more, Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit, I make my love engrafted, to this store: So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis'd, Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give That I in thy abundance am suffic'd, And by a part of all thy glory live. Look what is best, that best I wish in thee: This wish I have; then ten times happy me!