William Shakespeare's sonnet 1 - analysis

        Quatrain 2 discusses the subject’s great self-centeredness.  In line 5, the speaker says, “But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes.” Alliteration of the words “thou” and “thine” draws focus to the fact that the poet is speaking directly to the subject, possibly a man.  The statement “contracted to thine own bright eyes” shows the subject is withdrawn in his (or her) own beauty.  Next, the speaker states, “Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel” (6).  The alliteration of the words “flame” “fuel” and in “self-substantial” again emphasizes the subject’s self-absorbance.  By pulling out the stressed words, I see that “thy,” “self,” “flame,” and “fuel,” stand out and are obviously connected so to emphasize that the subject him or herself is the enemy.  In line 7, the speaker says, “Making a famine where abundance lies”.  Another disrupted stress brings in the possibility of the subject being a noble man.  The natural stress of “Making” is broken so that “king” is the strong syllable.  The speaker finishes the quatrain with, “Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel” (8).  This line strongly points out to the subject that he or she is selfishness.  The mass use of the word “thy” and the irony of alliterating “sweet” and “self” draws the readers’ attention to the subject’s morbid selfishness.  The speaker says that the subject is cruel to himself by not passing on his beauty and other traits.  Like the first quatrain, the second one forms a complete sentence.  Using complete sentences for each quatrain helps the poet to express fully his thoughts and move on to another subject.

        Quatrain 3 ties the previous two quatrains together, explaining some consequences of indulging in one’s self rather than procreating.  The speaker says ,in line 9, “Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament.”  The subject, “now”, is the “world’s fresh ornament;” he is the world’s fair and beautiful accessory, but the rest of the quatrain demonstrates that this status can only last so long before it withers, just as does a rose.  The poet develops the rose metaphor in this section of the poem, particularly in lines 10, 11, and 12.  Next, the speaker states, “And only herald to the gaudy spring” (10).  This line literally compares this man’s status to when a rose announces itself to spring.  This metaphor continues in line 11 when the speaker says, “Within thine own bud buriest thy content.” The rose now withers into its “own bud.”  The natural stress of “content” is interrupted placing stress on “tent,” perhaps referring to the hiding or resting of the rose as it withers into itself.  Finally, the speaker says, “And tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.”  Line 12 finishes the complete sentence and calls the subject a gentle peasant (p 156) and wasteful by not sharing his contents.

        The last two lines, the ending couplet, simply sum up the rest of the poem.  The speaker calls the subject in line 13:  “Pity the world or else the glutton be.”  The speaker tells the man to reproduce or be a glutton, one who indulges (in himself) excessively.  The speaker finishes and says, “To eat the world’s due, by the grace and thee” (14). The thought finishes by telling the subject he has used the world without giving back and will die.  I think the word “due” may be a pun on the word dew, keeping with the metaphor of the rose.  The rose eats the world’s dew before withering into itself to die.