First Quatrain
The speaker of Shakespeare’s “But wherefore do not you a mightier way,” again, reminds the young man that Time is the lad’s enemy; he refers to Time as a “bloody tyrant.” And he asks the young man why he does not find a more effective way to forestall this tyrant than just seemingly relying upon the speaker and his “barren rime.”
The speaker wants the young man to “make war upon this bloody tyrant”; he proclaims that the young man’s struggle with Time is as significant as any bloody battle between nations. And the speaker is again urging the young man to do what is most feasible in this war with Time. Of course, the reader knows well that the speaker’s solution is that this young man must marry and produce offspring.
Second Quatrain
The speaker reminds the young man that the lad is at his prime, “on the top of happy hours,” and there many young ladies who would gladly marry him and bear his offspring. The speaker relies on a colorful metaphor, likening the young women to “maiden gardens” who would “bear you living flowers.”
And the speaker asserts that these wholesome young women are more appropriate for a young man of his stature than the “painted counterfeit” that apparently please the young man as he fritters away his time and stamina.
Third Quatrain
The speaker then refers to “lines of life” or the lineage, which denotes the heritage the young man should be ensuring, according to the speaker. Life repairs itself by encouraging a lineage, by prompting young eligible adults to marry and produce their heirs. The speaker is always very clever in making use of word choices that refer to both situations: the fathering of heirs and the writing of poetry. The speaker is producing “line of life” in his poetry, and he is encouraging the young man to do the same with his heritage.
The speaker then reminds the young man that no matter how much he concerns himself with folly, the lines of life cannot “make you live yourself in eyes of men.” Only by producing an heir will the young man be guaranteed a lineage that others can see and know.
The Couplet
The couplet, “To give away yourself keeps yourself still; / And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill,” pronounces another epigrammatic piece of philosophy that the reader has come to expect from this persuasive speaker. He asserts that only by giving up his selfish self can the young man actually keep his own true self. And he must use his “sweet skill,” with which the young man is well endowed to live and produce his lineage.
Other articles on Shakespeare: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130
