Sonnet 1
207 Words
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
Commentary1. increase: offspring, fruit.
2. beauty's rose: beauty's finest flower.
4. tender: youthful; bear his memory: serve as a memorial of him; bear his memory - as an imprint taken from a seal.
5. contracted; bethrothed.
6. self-substantial fuel: fuel composed of you own substance.
9. fresh: lovely.
10. only: principal; peerless; gaudy; delightful.
11. content: (1) that contained, seed; (2) happiness; take pleasure in yourself alone.
12. churl: (1) boor; (2) miser; makest waste: destroys.
14.eat the world's due, by the grave and thee: consume what should belong to the world by refusing to have children before you die.
- Writer
