You are on page 1of 2

Savannah’s Sonnet Analysis:

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 3 portrays the idea that having a child and letting someone's image

continue to live on conquers the selfish urge to not reproduce, making it impossible for there ever to be a

remembrance of someone's life. This sonnet reveals the time in a young man’s life when he is deciding

whether or not to have a child. Shakespeare questions the man and makes him wonder what woman

would not want to have his child and why he would ever want to keep a woman from being a mother. The

use of assonance and consonance is very clear throughout this poem beginning in the first line. The words

“glass,” “face,” and “viewest” all have the “sss” sound which is a smooth flow from word to word, almost

like the flow of new blood being created if the young man decides to have a child of his own. In the

second quatrain, an indicative metaphor appears comparing a youthful man and woman having a child, to

the rewarding actions of farming and cultivating land:

For where is she so fair whose uneared womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb

Of his self-love, to stop posterity? (Sonnet 3)

Also in this quatrain, there are creative uses of powerful diction hidden within the lines. The set

of significant rhymes, “womb” and “tomb” sound so similar, but yet are complete opposites. While

“womb” refers to something not yet born, or in the making, and “tomb” which implies death; something

that lasts forever, they greatly contrast each other, but also compliment the idea of an ideal life to live.

Should he seed the “womb” and procreate to live his life through his future appealing child, or decide not
to, and let his beauty die in the “tomb?” Furthermore, the word “tillage” has a dual meaning that it

represents in this context. Not only does it mean the cultivation of land, but the creative diction till-age

unveils that this young man is at the “age” that he should make his choice and produce his offspring. In

the last quatrain, the elaborate diction, “thy mother’s glass,” is painting an image in the reader’s mind of

the juvenile man looking in a mirror and instead of seeing himself, he sees his fond, loving mother. He is

the “glass” of his mother and when she looks at her personable son, it reminds her of “the lovely April of

her prime.” The word “April” is used as in the time of year when nature is blossoming and creating their

offspring, which metaphorically relates to the self-minded man determining whether or not to do like the

plants and reproduce. Moreover, “through the windows” he will once be able to do as his mother did and

see himself living in his own “golden time.” Throughout the poem, the word “glass” and “window” are

frequently used which is a reference to eyeglasses. When you look through the “glass,” you will not only

see yourself looking in a mirror, but also your awaiting future and what momentous memories it will

contain. “Glass” is also a reference to an hourglass tipped upside down, the sand slowly dropping to the

bottom, getting less and less, just like the years passing by, each one leading to old age. Along with living

in the present, the young man is able to see what his life will be like when he is old, and how he will be

living a much more joyous and content life if he has his own child now. To conclude, in the fourteenth

line Shakespeare states, “Die single and thine image dies with thee.” The idea that the writer conveys, is

to help the young man realize that his hubris now, in his early age, will lead him to “die single,” without

any remembrance, but along with his death comes the death of his precious “image.”

You might also like