Shakespeare's Sonnets

Sonnet 3

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest

Now is the time that face should form another;

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

For where is she so fair whose uneared womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb

Of his self-love, to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime;

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.

   But if thou live, remembered not to be,

   Die single and thine image dies with thee. 

Commentary

3. repair: condition.

4. beguile: cheat; unbless some mother; deprive the potential mother of your child of that blessing .

5. uneared: unplowed. For where is she so fair = what woman is so beautiful that; where is the woman in the world that (would be too proud to sleep with you).

7. fond: (1) foolish; (2) doting (on himself)

8. to: so as to; stop posterity: end his family line.

9. glass: image.

10. calls back: remembers: prime; youth.

11. windows of thine age: aged eyes.

13. rememb'red no to be: so as not to be remembered.