When looked through a historical lens, Sonnet I is interpreted to be encouraging the young boy to reproduce. Through this lens, the first line means that we want offspring from all beautiful creatures. The second line then goes on to say that then, the beautiful rose will never die, meaning that his beauty will be immortal and live on forever. Lines three and four follow the same meaning, but with different symbols. "The riper should by time decease," means that over time, his ripeness or beauty will die. However, the mention of his tender heir in line four offers him a solution through reproducing. In the following quatrain, the speaker criticizes the boy for being too self-absorbed to consider settling down and having children. My favorite lines of this sonnet were:
"Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies," because these lines prove Shakespeare's genius and how he made his arguement in such a unique way. He even is able to use two opposing ideas to bring together one strong theme. The poem continues on to use many symbols to attempt to convince the boy to reproduce.
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