Shakespeare's Sonnets: XVI

This poem seems to be a continuation or in the same vein as Sonnet XV, but by the middle of the poem, the poet decides that he really can’t immortalize the young man and goes back to encouraging him to marry and have children to carry on his name and memory.

Sonnet XVI

But wherefore do not you a mightier way

Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?

And fortify yourself in your decay

With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?

Now stand you on the top of happy hours,

And many maiden gardens, yet unset,

With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,

Much liker than your painted counterfeit:

So should the lines of life that life repair,

Which this, Time’s pencil, or my pupil pen,

Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,

Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.

                To give away yourself, keeps yourself still,

                And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.