Shakespeare introduces the concepts of time passing, immortality, selfishness, and procreation at the beginning of the sonnet. The first sonnet's topics are intertwined, and its opening four lines emphasize its main point. The four lines each address a distinct subject. For instance, "we desire increase" in the first line refers to procreation. (Shakespeare L1). This suggests that having more children is something that people are very interested in doing. Shakespeare suggests immortality in line 2, particularly when he uses the phrase "might never die." (Shakespeare L2). Although most people want to live long lifetimes, death is inevitable. One day they will die as depicted in line 3 and 4. As time passes, parents will die and leave their property and legacy to the "tender heir" (L 4). A parent who dies without any child is forgotten since there is no one to carry on with his/her legacy. The poet uses imagery in his work, and in sonnet 1 he addresses love commercially such as when he talks about increase in line 1. The increase may mean profitability which can be linked to line 5 that talk about contracts.
Sonnet 1 contains 14 lines consisting of an octet, followed by a quatrain and ending with a couplet. The structure of the poem is in adherence to the form of the poet's sonnets arranged in three quatrains and one couplet. For instance, the first 4 lines focus on morality and beauty while the next involve the young man who violates the moral premise by wasting his beauty. The third quatrain focuses on convincing the youthful man to change his lifestyle to avoid losing his beauty. The last part which is a couplet consisting of two lines gives a summary of the entire piece trying to compel the youth man to sympathize with the world by passing his beauty to it through bearing children.
In sonnet 1, the lines follow a strict iambic pentameter, which involves use of ten syllables in every line. The syllables undergo unstressing and stressing in an alternating order giving the poem an interesting rhythm. For instance, line 2 has an iamb pentameter with alliteration "That thereby beauty's rose might never die" (Shakespeare L2). The line stresses the idea of humans having a long-lasting truth brought about by the internal rhyme "thereby/die" (L2). The sonnet also utilizes a simple rhyme scheme namely ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GH. They constitute full rhymes except the last one, which is half rhyme. The poem has internal rhymes, consonance, alliteration, and assonance, which assist in keeping the lines of the sonnet tightly together. The structure helps in breaking up the entire poem into sections that are easy to digest and analyze. In line 1 again, the poet uses repetition of the "crea" to tie the two words "creatures" and "increase" to emphasize on the need for human beings to reproduce. In quatrain 2, line 5 the poet uses alliteration "thou" and "thine" to stress his message to the subject who is a young man interested in his own life and beauty (L5). In line 11, a metaphor is used when the poet says "within thine" to show the fate of the young man. One day he will wither like a rose and lose all the youthful beauty. The metaphor is to show the young man the need to appreciate life and share it with the world. The poet makes use of the first four lines of the sonnet to highlight the important ideas for the entire poem. Each line expresses a single idea such as the importance of procreating in human beings discussed in the first line. The entire piece is full of hunger metaphors revealing the craving of the poet for the subject, which include love, beauty, and time passage.
One problem with the poem is pointing at a problem but does not offer a solution to it. For instance, the poet advises the young man to procreate but does not advise on how to do it. Procreation requires a man to have a sexual contact with a woman. However, the poet does not tell the young man to get a wife but only warns him against keeping his beauty to himself. He should advise the man to share his beauty with a woman of his choice before he gets too old for marriage. Again, the poet goes on to flatter his subject "world's fresh ornament"…only berald to gaudy spring" (L9, 10). In this line, he parallels one individual against the world by asserting that one man will outweigh everything else including colors, scents, creatures, and spring's blossoms. He exaggerates the role of the young man in the world and brings out the feeling that he is the only individual to sustain the world's population through procreating. In the last couplet, Shakespeare insists that the young man has power to make everybody happy by pitying the world and reproducing. However, he does not explain how the world will be delighted by the memories of the man through his heir. A selfish man as described in the poem cannot be a source of happiness to human beings yet Shakespeare argues so.
Shakespeare is infatuated with the beauty of the young man at first and the latter is also obsessed with himself. This bothers the poet, as the young man does not seem to have any interest in the world around him. The sonnet brings out the themes of a man admiration for another man's appearance and ravages of time. The first line illustrates common rule of life of desiring good things such as when he exults the young man. The term "fairest" reveals the regards the poet has on the man yet he does not like the kind of selfish life that he is living. He wishes the man would never die revealing his desire for immortalization for another person and not himself. This reveals his selflessness especially when he refers to the young man as "fairest creature" (L1). The phrase symbolizes the desire the poet has on ensuring that the legacy of the man is lengthened through his heirs. One may think that the young man could be Shakespeare himself desiring to have an heir to continue with his work of art and poetry. The phrase "pity the world" reveals that human beings have a role to play in ensuring survival of species. If Shakespeare does not have people to continue his artistic work everything will be forgotten once he dies. The motivation of Shakespeare to write a love poem is to appreciate love, beauty, and time passage. The most interesting aspect is the use of simple rhyme scheme ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GH to tie the lines together and bring out the meaning of the poem that touches on procreation and passage of time.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. The sonnets. Vol. 26. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
