1. Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,

2. In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd:

3. Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place,

4. With beauty's treasure, ere it be self-kill'd:

5. That use is not forbidden usury,

6. Which happies those that pay the willing loan;

7. That's for thyself to breed another thee,

8. Or ten times happier be it ten for one,

9. Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,

10. If ten of thine ten times refigured thee,

11. Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart,

12. Leaving thee living in posterity?

13. Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair.

14. To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

Be Not Self-Willed

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Using the metaphor of Henry as a perfume capturing the vestiges of summer fragrances in a vial, Oxford asks that it not be sacrificed and thus “self killed”. Explaining that use of this vial is not charging interest as in some loan but an way to enable Elizabeth to create another of herself. Explaining how happy making a copy of herself would make Oxford and admonishing her not to “make worms” her heir.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Telling Elizabeth not to let her winter deface her legacy in line 1. Telling her if she is distilled then she will be in her summer once more as Henry provides her essence and renewal in line 2. Alluding to Henry in line 3 as the perfume bottle distilled from her. In line 4 Henry is beauty's treasure, and self-killed if Elizabeth doesn't use him.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Telling her in line 5 that Henry's use is not forbidden using the analogy of charging interest on a loan. Further ellaborating that Henry provides a joy and she should willingly pay this "loan".

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Telling her if she made ten copies of herself it would make him proportionately happy to have 10 copies carring her on to posterity.

couplet (13-14),

Telling her not to be stubborn, that she is much too fair to leave nothing behind but her rotting corpse when she could leave her heir.

Commentary:

Much as sonnet 12 was a discussion of the effect’s of winter as a permanent situation unless Elizabeth makes usage of the metaphorical vial she has distilled from Henry’s metaphorical flower. And hopefully an explanation of the subject’s heeding the advise providing a more appropriate explanation for why the poet would take such joy in the development. This sonnet of course is likely a pair with 5.

While the obvious message of this sonnet has long been recognized for the subject to create a copy of themselves what has not been understood is that the phrase “Make sweet some vial” refers to a very specific existing “vial”, thus the more understandable manner of how not doing so would be making it “self killed”. In addition it more reasonable explains why it is that the poet would be so much happier than the subject. The Stratfordian paradigm can not explain the poet’s interest but this explanation both reveals his self interest and ties together all the other sonnets as integral to this same much more understandable obsession. Lastly it must be said that suggesting to a “fair youth” that “worms will be thine heir”, seems unreasonably dramatic and overly urgent.