User:BoggessT/Shakespeare's 11th Sonnet

When I first read through Shakespeare's 11th Sonnet, it was fairly clear to me what them he was portraying. It is a theme which goes accordingly with Shakespeare's other Sonnets: "beautiful people should pro-create,"  as stated by my instructor. As I read through the Sonnet, I came to realize it wasn't saying beautiful people should expand their bloodline, but only beautiful people; "Let those whom nature had not made for store, Harsh, featureless,  and rude, barrenly perish."

After drawing out the theme, a more difficult task I encountered was the use of old English, which potentially had a completely different meaning behind them. One of the main words I was not too familiar with was "threescore." I had a general understanding that it meant three or three times. After I conducted a bit of research and other contexts of the word, I found that it meant three times twenty, or sixty. Shakespeare uses the term in his Sonnet to describe the typical lifespan of a person during his times, "And threescore year would make the world away."

As stated before, the structure or the words themselves can hold a different meaning. For example, in the second line, "In one of thine, from that which though departest," was not clear to me. So once again I did my research and the results were promising. "In one of thine," was explained as "In a child of yours," which now makes sense to me, for it ties in with the rest of the Sonnet.

One line I found really intriguing was the fifth; "Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase." I found it to almost be saying it is your responsibility to expand your bloodline, while going along with only if your beautiful. Furthermore, and more bluntly, Shakespeare writes; if you don't breed the only thing left for you is old age and death, for your beauty will not live on. It almost seems to me that Shakespeare may have had a narcissistic quality towards others, which arose the question of 'to whom was Shakespeare writing to?' Was this person that beautiful in his eyes?

All in all, I found Shakespeare's 11th Sonnet to be a little shallow, however we do not know who he was addressing. But we do know that person is worthy of expanding their bloodline, for "Look whom she best endowed."