Sonnet 2: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow
Sonnet 2: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow - meaning Summary
Beauty Secured by Offspring
Shakespeare addresses the Fair Youth, imagining old age ravaging his once-admired beauty. The speaker warns that sole reliance on looks will become a source of shame when youth fades. He urges procreation: a child would carry the youth’s beauty forward, proving and preserving it after death. The sonnet frames parenthood as practical and aesthetic insurance against time, transforming loss into continuity through succession.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen 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.
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