Sonnet -2 by William Shakespeare

 Sonnet - 2

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 2 by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s second sonnet, ‘When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,’ is the first sonnet that addresses the unknown ‘Fair Youth.’


This poem, ‘When forty winters shall besiege thy brow’ is sonnet number two of 154 sonnets that Shakespeare wrote over his lifetime. It is part of the prolonged Fair Youth sequence of sonnets and is one of several that deal with the topic of procreation (numbers one through seventeen).


The Fair Youth, who is the intended listener and subject of the vast majority of Shakespeare’s sonnets, is encouraged throughout sonnets one through seventeen to have children.

Poem


When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,

Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,

Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held.

Then being asked where all thy beauty lies—

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days—

To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.

How much more praise deserved thy beauty’s use

If thou couldst answer “This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count and make my old excuse”,

Proving his beauty by succession thine.

    This were to be new made when thou art old,

    And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.

Summary

‘When forty winters shall besiege thy brow’ by William Shakespeare addresses the need to have children as a way of guaranteeing one’s legacy and beauty.


The speaker addresses the Fair Youth, informing him that in short order he’s going to lose his beauty and his face is going to look like a plowed field. Once this happens he’ll be ashamed and unable to maintain his reputation. The only remedy for this is if the young man has a child to whom he can bestow his beauty. Then, he will have a valid excuse for his wrinkles. Plus, it will be as though he is himself reborn.