1. task you to recite: place upon you the task of reciting.

2-3 What merit liv'd in me, that you should love / After my death: i.e., what virtue I had when I lived, that would make you love me even after I died.

4. prove: demonstrate by evidence.

5. virtuous lie: lie about my virtue; and/or lie motived by good intentions.

6. mine own desert: what I really deserve.

8. niggard: stingy.

10. untrue: untruly.

13. I am sham'd by that which I bring forth: —Perhaps "that which I bring forth" is the love poetry that the poet has addressed to his beloved.