Analysis Of Sonnet 2

Sonnet 2

In Sonnet 2, Shakespeare stresses to his lover that beauty will not last, and

that it is selfish and foolish for anyone not to prepare for the loss of beauty

and youth by having a child to carry on unsurpassed beauty. The sonnet can be

cynically seen as Shakespeare’s attempt to get his lover to sleep with him

rather than as a lesson in living life.

In the first quatrain Shakespeare says that later on, your youth will be

worthless. The greatness of your youth, admired by everyone now, will be, will

be as worthless as a “tatter’d weed of small worth held”. Shakespeare says this

worthlessness will be when forty years of age wrinkles your brow and when there

are, “deep trenches in thy beauty’s field”. The personification is seen in the

metaphor: “deep trenches in thy beauty’s field” which can be seen as wrinkles in

a beautiful face. This gives readers a picture of the old age that has yet to

come for some.

In the second quatrain, when what has yet to come for some has came, and when

you are asked, where is your beauty now? And when you’re asked, “where are all

the treasures of thy lusty days?” You must reply that These “treasures of thy

lusty days” or offspring from your youth are lost in “thine own deep sunken

eyes” states the poet. In this place of old age where your youth is, is also

greed and self-obsession which is written as “all-eating shame and thriftless

praise” by Shakespeare. The metaphor of “all-eating shame” is effective in how

readers sense a feeling of negativity from the words of Shakespeare’s hand.

In the third quatrain, where Shakespeare’s hand rhymes of regret, the ideal

answer is shown. The poet states, “This fair child of mine shall sum my account

and make my old excuse, proving his beauty by succession thine!” This was the

answer wished to be used but could not be. Shakespeare says, “How much more

praise deserved thy beauty’s use” which regrets, if only your beauty could have

been put to a greater use.

The couplet then describes what it would be like to have this baby. Shakespeare

poetically states that this baby would be “new made when thou art old” This

means that the baby would be young while you are old. The final line tells how

you would see your own blood flow warm through the baby while you are cold.

“And see thy warm blood when thou feel’st it cold.”