I'm going through the Sonnets methodically, and sharing my thoughts with you as I go. I absolutely love Shakespeare's plays, and this is the first time I'm really studying the sonnets as a whole. The first thing right out of the gate that is surprising is how pro life Shakespeare's narrator is. The persona of the poems, the voice speaking, considers not having children a crime.

Is this a kind of existential wisdom, or is it also possibly intense flirting?

He is saying to THIS man in particular if you do not have kids it will be a crime.

Or, you can see it both ways: that he is using the idea as a rule in general as a chance to flirt with this object of his adoration.

We talk about Shakespeare as being a part of a cultural Renaissance, so maybe it shouldn't be surprising that birth and reproduction is such a primary part of his material. Still, it was a bit of a surprise to me how adamant he is about the reader reproducing.

Themes: Time and Nature as Creator and Destroyer

Reproduction as Divine Duty and Protection Against Death

Inevitability of Cycles of Decay and Regeneration

Refusal to Reproduce as Shameful and Murderous

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