Sonnet 13: O, That You Were Your Self! but, Love, You Are
Sonnet 13: O, That You Were Your Self! but, Love, You Are - meaning Summary
Procreate to Defy Death
Shakespeare addresses a young beloved and urges procreation as a defense against mortality. He frames the body and beauty as leased goods that should be preserved by giving them to another—specifically a son—so the beloved can live on beyond physical death. The poem treats sterility as wasteful neglect and closes by reminding the addressee of lineage: he had a father, so let his son say the same.
Read Complete AnalysesO, that you were your self! But, love, you are No longer yours than you yourself here live. Against this coming 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 Yourself again after yourself’s decease, When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, Which husbandry in honour might uphold Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day And barren rage of death’s eternal cold? O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know, You had a father; let your son say so.
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