Sonnet Reflection: 2

This sonnet, like the first, urges Mr. W.H. to have children.  In this sonnet, weather is used to describe Mr. W.H.  Rather than simply stating he will grow old, Shakespeare uses winter to say so.  The cold and bleak nature that is associated with winter helps to drive home the point that old age will soon befall the young man, and that he needs to have children before his time is up.  Shakespeare then says "Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies...  To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise."  Here Shakespeare is asking where Mr. W.H.'s beauty will go if he doesn't have a child.  Then, he goes on to say how much more praise he would receive if he had a child.  When asked where his beauty is, he could proudly say "This fair child of mine".  The child, in a way, could be an outlet for all his beauty.  His beauty would live on through the child, no matter how old he would become.  The couplet says "This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold".  By this, Shakespeare is saying that the new life (a child) that would come from the old (Mr. W.H.) would further prove his beauty.  Even when Mr. W.H. is gone, he won't be, in a sense, because the child will keep his beauty alive eternally.