Shakespeares Sonnets SONNET 2 When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beautys field, Thy youths proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatterd weed, of small worth held: Then being askd where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserved thy beautys use, If thou couldst answer This fair child of mine Shall sum my count and make my old excuse, Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feelst it cold. Summary: Sonnet 2 continues the argument and plea from Sonnet 1, this time through the imagery of military, winter, and commerce. Time again is the great enemy, besieging the youths brow, digging trenches — wrinkles — in his face, and ravaging his good looks. Beauty is conceived of as a treasure that decays unless, through love, its natural increase — marrying and having children — is made possible.The poet attempts to scare the young man into marrying and having children by showing him his future. When the youth is forty years old, he will be nothing but a tottered weed (meaning tattered garment), of small worth held because he will be alone and childless. The only thing the young man will have to look back on is his self-absorbed lusty days, empty because he created nothing — namely, no children. This barrenness of old age is symbolized in the sonnets last line, And see thy blood warm when thou feelst it cold, and contrasts to the previous sonnets spring imagery.The poets argument that the young man is actually hurting himself by not procreating is present in this sonnet as it was in the preceding one. This time, however, the youths narcissism is both physical and emotional. The poet predicts that by the time the youth turns forty years old, he will have deep-sunken eyes, and the shame he will feel for not having children will be an all-eating emotion, which recalls the phrases Feedst thy lights flame and this glutton be from Sonnet 1. Again drawing on business imagery, the poet acknowledges that all he seeks is for the young man to have a child, who would immortalize the youths beauty. The poet does not call the act of love increase, as he did in Sonnet 1, but use, meaning investment, the opposite of niggarding from Sonnet 1. In line 8, he speaks of thriftless praise, or unprofitable praise — the term thrift during Shakespeares lifetime had various meanings, including profit and increase, which also recalls Sonnet 1.Proud livery in line 3, here meaning well-tailored clothing, contrasts to tottered weed as the clothes of a noblemans servant contrast to the rags of a beggar; the phrase also refers to the youths outward beauty, which time devours. To refrain from marriage makes the youth guilty of narcissism and of cruelty to future generations. A thriftless victim of time, he is symbolized by winters rather than by years.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 12:36:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015