Sonnet 3
Sonnet 3 | |||||||
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Sonnet 3 is one of
In the sonnet, the speaker is urging the man being addressed to preserve something of himself and something of the image he sees in the mirror by fathering a child. The “young man” of this and other sonnets is a subject of debate. Some think it may be based on William Herbert, others consider Henry Wriothesley. There are other candidates as well.
Structure
The poem takes the form of a Shakespearean sonnet: fourteen
/ × × / × / × / × / (×) Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest (3.1)
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. (×) = extrametrical syllable.
Analysis
In this sonnet, the poet is urging the 'fair youth' to preserve something of himself and something of the image he sees in the mirror by fathering a child, "Now is the time that face should form another".
The message is reiterated in the last lines of the poem: "But if thou live, remember'd not to be, / Die single, and thine image dies with thee." Not only will the youth die, but so will his image — the one in his mirror, and also his image that may be seen borne by his yet-to-be child.[2]
References
- OCLC 4770201.
- ^ Larsen, Kenneth J. "Note". Essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
Further reading
- Baldwin, T. W. On the Literary Genetics of Shakspeare's Sonnets. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.
- Hubler, Edwin. The Sense of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.
- First edition and facsimile
- Shakespeare, William (1609). Shake-speares Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted. London: Thomas Thorpe.
- OCLC 458829162.
- Variorum editions
- OCLC 234756.
- Modern critical editions
- Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Madison: OCLC 86090499.
- OCLC 2968040.
- Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002). The Complete Sonnets and Poems. OCLC 48532938.
- OCLC 32272082.
- OCLC 15018446.
- Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006). Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems. OCLC 64594469.
- OCLC 46683809.
- OCLC 36806589.
External links
- Works related to Sonnet 3 (Shakespeare) at Wikisource
- A paraphrase of the sonnet
- Shakespeare's sonnets.com on Sonnet 3