Sonnet II

In Sonnet II, Shakespeare tries to convince the beautiful boy of how quickly time goes by and how he needs to take advantage of it. The first quatrain uses a large metaphor to describe times toll. First, describing a war and how this war will "besiege his brow" and "dig deep trenches," meaning that the forty winters or years will cause him to have wrinkles and not look attractive like he does now. The winters are also a symbol for aging because it is a time when everything becomes white (gray hair). Many metaphors continue to go on throughout this poem. It also brings up him having children again as that will help his beauity live on forever. "Proving his beauty by succession thine" could be Shakespeare's way of telling him that a son could succeed his looks, not just his role as a wealthy man. The overall theme of this sonnet is for the young boy to take advantage of his beauty, by enjoying it now and by reproducing to allow that beauty to live on forever.