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SONNET 1 |
PARAPHRASE |
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FROM
fairest creatures we desire increase, |
We desire that all created
things may grow more plentiful, |
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That
thereby beauty's rose might never die, |
So that nature's beauty may
not die out, |
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But
as the riper should by time decease, |
But as an old man dies at
the hand of time, |
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His
tender heir might bear his memory: |
He leaves an heir to carry
on his memory: |
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But
thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, |
But you, interested only in your
own beauty, |
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Feed'st
thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel, |
Feed the radiant light of
life with self-regarding fuel, |
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Making
a famine where abundance lies, |
Making a void of beauty by
so obsessing over your own looks, |
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Thyself
thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. |
With this behavior you are
being cruel to yourself. |
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Thou
that art now the world's fresh ornament |
You are now the newest
ornament in the world, young and beautiful |
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And
only herald to the gaudy spring, |
And the chief messenger of
spring, |
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Within
thine own bud buriest thy content |
But you are burying the
gifts you have been given within yourself |
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And,
tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. |
And, dear one, because you deny
others your beauty, you are actually wasting it.l |
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Pity
the world, or else this glutton be, |
Take pity on the world, or
else be regarded as a selfish glutton, |
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To
eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. |
By the laws of God and nature
you must create a child, so that the grave does not devour the memory of your
loveliness. |