interprets the world surrounding and created through
the text.
Despite the name of the subset, procreation sonnets,
the focus is predominately on the male reproductive
role and not on motherhood. However, Sonnet 3 intro-
duces the idea of woman-as-womb, suggesting that no
woman would refuse her womb to the young man.
Moreover, the phrase “unbless some mother” (l. 4) has
been connected to maternal guidance books, a new
genre developed in the early modern era. These advice
books suggested that mothers contributed more to
their children’s existence than simply incubation and
later nurturing. They advocated a prominent role in
childhood education and instruction for mothers.
These books also assumed that all women wanted to
be mothers and implied that the refusal to reproduce,
by either men or women, was a real social evil and
denied women their biological destiny.
Sonnet 3 is written in iambic pentameter, has three
cross-rhymed quatrains, and ends with a COUPLET. Son-
net 3 is the only one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets to
have fi ve rhymes: abab, cdcd followed by dede, dd.
Although this structure, technically an OCTAVE followed
by a SESTET, seems closer to the ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN)
SONNET form, in theme the sonnet remains aligned with
ENGLISH SONNET structure. Sonnet 3 also features a
series of internal rhymes (couplet ties). In particular,
the repetition of -re (or re-) both connects the poem
internally and recalls the “theme” of regeneration and
renewal. Words featuring -re include: fresh, repair,
renewest, where, unear’[e]d, remember’[e]d. Another
internal connecting rhyme is -age: tillage, age, image.
The fi rst two lines of the poem form a SYNECDOCHE,
in which “face” represents the lovely boy whom the
speaker addresses. His fundamental goal is to persuade
the youth of the advantages of producing a child. He
begins rather directly by imperatively instructing the
youth that “now is the time” that he “should form
another” (l. 2). He follows up this charge with fl attery
and then with a series of rhetorical questions. By ask-
ing open-ended questions, the speaker distances him-
self from the fi nal decision but guides the lovely boy
toward making the “right” choice by presenting logical
scenarios. All of these rhetorical strategies are con-
tained within the octave. The sestet, on the other hand,
witnesses a return to fl attery of a sort, although this
adulation is tempered by a quiet admiration and a sin-
cere regret. The speaker wistfully closes the poem with
the solemn reminder, “die single, and thine image dies
with thee” (l. 14).
There is no singular controlling image found within
Sonnet 3; however, there are consistent ideas. With the
governing objective being procreation, Shakespeare
employs a number of agricultural metaphors. Like the
fertile fi eld waiting to be planted, all attractive, virginal
women are waiting to be approached by the lovely
young man. This idea is emphasized through uneared
(l. 5), tillage (l. 5), and husbandry (l. 5). Agricultural
images, particularly the plowing metaphor, can also be
traced throughout some of Sonnet 3’s allusions to clas-
sical works. Besides the clear reference to the Narcissus
legend from OVID’s Metamorphoses, the poem contains
a number of additional Ovidian references. These
include book 15 of Metamorphoses, Medicamina Faciei,
and Ars amatoria. All include a connection between age
and wrinkles, which are created through plowing.
Besides agricultural metaphors, the sonnet depends
on a number of references to glass to convey the mes-
sage of procreation. In early modern English, glass
often means “mirror.” In Sonnet 3, the youth’s image is
replicated in the mirror, as it would be in his chil-
dren—an idea confi rmed by his mother’s use of him as
a “glass” of her youth (l. 9). People can be copied both
by looking in a mirror and by procreating.
However, in Shakespeare’s sonnets, the word glass
sometimes refers to an hourglass instead of a mirror.
Although “mirror” makes the most sense in Sonnet 3,
if the dual meaning is explored, there are temporal
implications. Glass is used in the fi rst line, and the
second contains time. Line 10 combines glass with
calls back, implying a function of time. All of these
subtle reminders serve to underscore the main mes-
sage of the poem’s speaker, who is urging the lovely
boy to produce offspring before it is too late and he
runs out of time.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
FURTHER READING
Burrow, Colin. “Shakespeare’s Wrinkled Eye: Sonnet 3,
Lines 11–12.” N&Q 245, no. 1 (2000): 90–91.362 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 3