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O That you were your selfe, but love you are
No longer yours, then you your selfe here live,
Against this cumming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination, then you were
Your selfe again after your selfes decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet forme should beare.
Who lets so faire a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
Against the stormy gusts of winters day
And barren rage of deaths eternall cold?
O none but unthrifts, deare my love you know,
You had a Father, let your Son say so.
Commentary
Commentary
Address to a fair young man encouraging him to procreate.
Address to a fair young man encouraging him to procreate.
Changes to the original text: Line 7, 'you' changed to 'your' at the beginning of the line;
In the first quatrain, the poet pursues again his love of paradox and contradiction, observing that the young man is only his own for as long as he lives on earth (here), and that he should prepare for death by making a copy of himself.
In the second quatrain, the poet observes that the young man only holds his beauty only while he lives (on lease), and that he should make a copy of himself (your sweet issue your sweet forme should beare).
In the third quatrain, the poet asks who would allow a fair house to fall into ruin when a little husbandry might preserve it against the winter's wind and 'deaths eternall cold'.
In the final couplet, the poet observes that only prodigals would do this, and he urges that since he (deare my love) had a father, let his son say the same.
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