SONNET III

Sonnet III belongs to the collection of the so-called “Marriage Sonnets” and therefore the sonnet is one inviting the Fair Youth to get married and have children. Considering the lay-out the recognizes the typical Elizabethan structure that is arranged into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. It follows that since that intelligent reader knows that the structure is meant to developed three different aspects of the same problem, he or she will be curious to dig into the text to see how the different literal devices chosen by the poet contribute to meaning. Right from the start the speaking voice expresses his insistence resorting to the imperative mood: “look”, “tell”. Since the lyrical I invite the Fair Youth to become aware of his beauty he want’s him to look at himself in the mirror because not only does the mirror reflect his appearance, it can also be interpreted as a metaphor to say that the Fair Youth must come to terms with his identity and future life. Punctuation helps to meaning and provides the pace reading. Indeed, the first two lines end with a semi-colon thus creating a brake into the rhythm of the text. “Now” is placed in key position so that is meaning is particularly relevant to make sense of the message of the so called “Marriage sonnets”. “Now, time”, together int at the moment the F.Y. is living and is better highlighted in the line three where the speaker uses the expression “fresh repair” that underlines the age of the beloved. In addition, references to the psychological aspect of the F.Y. are presented with words like “the face” and “another” thus using a synecdoche but considering connotative value the sensitive reader may associate “from” to the psychological aspect of the F.Y.; the child he would generate is said to be “repeair” and ends line with the verb “renewest”. The speaking voice makes use of an if clause that anticipates the consideration that “the world” will suffer a loss of beauty if the F.Y. doesn’t think of the way to remain to posterity. The value of the if clause is to let his beloved free to make a choice. The parallelism “fresh” and “renewest” both suggest the idea of something full of vitality, to aspect of the F.Y. beauty.

In the second quatrain the poet pones two different questions to his beloved. In the first one the lyrical I ask is a woman can be so pure that she doesn’t want to have a child with him. In the second question the poet asks if there’s a man so mad that doesn’t want to have children knowing that he is good looking. These are two rhetorical questions. The expression “self-love” underlines the aspect that the poet thinks that the F.Y. is beautiful an he is in love with him.  In these four lines of the second quatrain there’s the repetition of the sound W, evokes a sense of smoothness. There are words like “womb “and “fond”, that remind to the image of a mother and a child but then compares another world, that is “tomb”, that makes understand to the reader that there is no more time. The F.Y. have to take a decision immediately.

In the third quatrain there is a metaphor: the mother’s youth compared to the spring. There is again the image of the mirror, like the first quatrain. The beloved is the mirror of his mother. She will always see her youth because she made a decision: have a child. This is an invitation to keep in mind that he will grow old but he will always remember what he was. The poet uses some words like “wrinkles” and “golden time” recall impeding old age.

In the rhyming couplet there is the answer of the poet’s problem. He says to the beloved if he doesn’t want to be remembered he will have to dye celibate and nobody will remember him. In these last two lines it is as if the poet were using a defiant tone to last invite his lover.

I liked this poem but I think that sometimes Shakespeare appears to convince of the beauty of his lover. Indeed, I think is a particular demonstration of very honest love.