Shakespeare's 3rd Sonnet (Hardcore Analysis) (Patreon)

Today you'll see my attempt to possess this third sonnet by memory in real time.

Then we'll touch upon the themes of parenthood, procreation, self-love, and ageing. 

For those of you reading the sonnets alongside Proust's In Search of Lost Time - do you see them as companion works?

Sonnet III

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,

Now is the time that face should form another,

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

For where is she so fair whose uneared womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb

Of his self-love, to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime;

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.

But if thou live rememb’red not to be,

Die single, and thine image dies with thee.

Let us know if you have a favourite line, image, or sentiment from this third sonnet.

Whilst I am personally keen to break out of the procreation sequence (the first seventeen sonnets) because the best poems are in the late middle of the sequence, I do find myself chanting the opening quatrain of this sonnet.

I particularly like "Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother" and "she in thee | Calls back the lovely April of her prime."

Happy sonneteering!