The speaker tells his beloved that all the people he has ever loved—and thought dead—are alive again within their heart. The beloved becomes a “grave” where buried love lives on, decorated with the trophies of those past relationships. Each former friend or lover gave their share of him away, so now that whole inheritance belongs to this one person. There’s a tender amazement in the speaker’s voice: grief is transformed into a feeling of reunion, as if every loss has been repaid. He no longer has to mourn because loving this single soul means loving everyone again. When he looks at his beloved, he sees the faces he once cherished. In giving himself completely, he gives himself to all of them. The mood is intimate and reverent, holding a quiet sorrow that slowly becomes comfort and wholeness.
Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts — Summary
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have supposed dead; And there reigns Love, and all Love's loving parts, And all those friends which I thought buried. How many a holy and obsequious tear Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye, As interest of the dead, which now appear But things remov'd that hidden in thee lie! Thou art the grave where buried love doth live, Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone, Who all their parts of me to thee did give, That due of many now is thine alone: Their images I lov'd, I view in thee, And thou--all they--hast all the all of me.