1. Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
2. That thou consumest thyself in single life?
3. Ah; if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
4. The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife,
5. The world will be thy widow and still weep,
6. That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
7. When every private widow well may keep,
8. By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
9. Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
10. Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it
11. But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
12. And kept unused, the user so destroys it:
13. No love toward others in that bosom sits
14. That on himself such murderous shame commits.
Murderous Shame
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Asking Elizabeth rhetorically if she is afraid to confront the truth about himself and Henry for fear of the emotions stirred and if it this is the reason she preoccupies herself with other things.Telling her appropriately that the world will be her widow as the world will only know of only her loss alone. In contrast to even other widows who provide reminders of their husband’s “shape” through their children. Explaining that though Henry may still be there for the world to enjoy his “place” is vitally important and it will be a huge waste if he does not fill the place he should. He is thus explaining that a “murderous shame” is committed against Henry.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
Using the apt metaphors of widow and wife to ask Elizabeth if she consumes herself with her duties to avoid the emotions of her lost son and husband in lines 1 and 2. Telling her that if she doesn't recognize and she somehow (probably facetiously raising this possibility) should die she will be heirless without converting Henry in line 3. Alluding to the great mourning that will take place in line 4.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
Telling her that should she not recognize, it will be the world that is her widow (not her spouse) but surely their will be sadness in line 5 without her semblance left behind in line 6. Alluding to himself and reversing the comparison of telling how widowed wives remember their husbands through the children in lines 7 and 8.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
Calling Elizabeth an "unthrift" and telling her she "spends" Henry on herself as opposed to "saving" him for England. Telling her that though Henry still occupies a place it is not the place he is meant to occupy in line 10. Telling her that her waste of Henry is a finality in line 11 and thus that she destroys his worth in line 12.
couplet (13-14),
Entwining Elizabeth with Henry to tell her that her unloving bosom commits the murdersous act on Henry.
Commentary:
Oxford apparently referencing his own disappearance and disassociation from Henry’s paternity which he of course partly orchestrated as discussed previously. He asks Elizabeth rhetorically why she so dedicates herself to the false pretense of not having had a family which as we will see he views them as having had one in some sense.
The metaphor of the single, “makeless wife” of this sonnet, like so many of the other sonnets, is no accident. That it should be obvious that this sonnet makes much better sense addressed to a woman should need to much in the way of an argument. It is more that rest of the meaning of this sonnet that is really important. The expressions of the “unthrift”, the “waste”, the “murderous shame” are the keys to understanding that Oxford is expressing how Elizabeth squanders and wastes the wealth embodied in Henry and that denying him his identity is tantamount to the murderous act he accuses the subject of the poem of. It should be clear as well that these acts are directed at either “him” or (the) “beauty”. An finally the notion that the subject of the poem “shalt hapt to die” seems again rather less suspicious addressed to a likely septuagenarian (by this chronology) than our supposed fair youth of Stratfordian orthodox myth.
Line 3 reveals that death is an issue and thus this sonnet as the others is really an end of life sonnet. Line 10 reveals that “shifting place” a clue that Henry merely needs to change his place. Line 11 reveals the waste of Henry. Line 14 reveals that the shame brought on Henry is effectively “murderous”.