The speaker shifts back to his procreation arguments here, describing his own ability to preserve the beauty of the fair youth through poetry as inadequate in comparison to the physical evidence that a child would provide. “Barren” typically refers to land that cannot be used to grow crops, but it is also a derogatory term used to describe infertility. In the context of his encouraging the fair youth to have a child, the speaker labels his verse barren, indicating that he is unable to successfully reproduce the beauty of the fair youth in his works.

Notice the similarity in imagery between Sonnet 12 and Sonnet 15. Both poems invoke visual images of nature, specifically associating youth and beauty with daytime and aging and death with nighttime. They also share a similar structure, employing “when” clauses at the beginning of each quatrain and ending on a couplet that offers a way to defend against time. The main difference can be seen in the thematic shift that takes place in sonnet 15, with the emphasis moving away from the youth’s procreation to the speaker’s “war” against time. The speaker posits that even if time takes away his beloved’s beauty, the speaker’s poetry will preserve it.

The verb “prognosticate” means to foretell or prophesize. However, the speaker does not base his predictions on astronomy or religion, but rather on the feeling he has when looking into his beloved’s eyes. The speaker’s love for the fair youth has led him to believe that upon the death of his beloved, all that is beautiful and true will cease to exist. He uses this idea to bolster his argument that the fair youth needs to have a child. He raises the stakes by insinuating that it is not just the fair youth’s beauty that is at stake, but the very ideals of truth and beauty.

The speaker employs a metaphor that compares the fair youth’s family lineage to a house. Family lines are often referred to as “houses,” especially amongst the nobility. The speaker extends this idea and compares the fair youth’s body to a house that needs upkeep. If the fair youth dies without a male heir, then his house will fall to decay since there will be no one to continue the legacy of his beauty. The specific reference to a son invokes the patrilineal nature of succession in Elizabethan England, where sons inherited the titles and wealth of their fathers, just as the speaker hopes the fair youth’s son will inherit his beauty.

Color imagery is prevalent in this sonnet, often in the context of decay. The “sable [black] curls” of youth turn to white with age, and the green foliage of summer is bundled up and stored away. Time is depicted as a destructive force which pushes away the “brave day” and ushers in the “hideous night.” The personification of Time also carries a “scythe,” a visual image associated with the figure of the grim reaper, a personification of death popularized in the 14th century during the outbreak of the Black Plague. This imagery makes the connection between the passage of time and mortality more explicit. The speaker reiterates that the only way to defend against “Time’s scythe” is to procreate.

For in-depth look at “Sonnet 19,” read our expert analysis on its own page.

For in-depth look at “Sonnet 18,” read our expert analysis on its own page.

One of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), is often cited as a major influence on his works. Marlowe was well noted for depicting homosexuality and homoeroticism in his writings, taboo subjects in Elizabethan England. In order for works which featured homosexual relationships or sentiments to be palatable to the general public, writers often had to “disclaim” the content as morally transgressive by punishing homosexual characters within the narrative. Alternatively, they could include passages which assured readers that nothing “deviant” was happening by emphasizing the pure, platonic nature of the relationships and rejecting the idea of carnal contact. The speaker acknowledges these realities in his lament over Nature’s decision to make his beloved a man.

Sonnet 17 ends with a final appeal to the fair youth to have a child. It also marks the transition between the first 17 sonnets, which are often called the “Procreation Sonnets,” and the rest of the Fair Youth sequence, which extends to Sonnet 126. The speaker assures the fair youth that if he has a child, not only will his beauty live on and lend credence to the speaker’s verse, but he will also “live twice” after his death since both his child and the speaker’s poetry will preserve him.

The speaker continues to insist that the fair youth should have a child by crafting a metaphor that compares procreation to print publication and the youth to “nature’s seal.” In order to print a book on a Renaissance-era printing press, developed by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, metal blocks were carved with letters and symbols, a process that could take hours or days, before being set into the press. Nature “carved” the fair youth so that he would go on to procreate, or “print more” copies of himself, adding an element of obligation to the speaker’s encouragement. It is no longer just the speaker that the fair youth must appease, but nature herself, who took care to “carve” him so beautifully.

The speaker compares his addressee (likely a young, male aristocrat) to a summer's day. However, the comparison is backwards. Summer is measured against the young man and found lacking: he is "more lovely and more temperate," given that summer is short and can be brutally hot. Though the young man's beauty and youth cannot last forever, the speaker concludes that both can be immortalized through poetry.

The personification of death as a character who is proud of bringing about mortality is further explored in the sonnet [“Death Be Not Proud”] (https://www.owleyes.org/text/death-be-not-proud) by John Donne, published in 1633. In Sonnet 18, and throughout the entire sonnet sequence, the speaker casts death and time as enemies who seek to destroy humans. Donne’s sonnet further explores this concept, with a specific focus on the ways that humans overcome death.

The speaker speculates about how his poetry will be perceived by future generations if he writes about the beauty of the fair youth. He worries that no one will believe his descriptions and that he will be seen as an old man prone to exaggeration and falsehood.

The speaker praises the fair youth as having all the beauty and gentleness of a woman, but none of the fickleness that the speaker attributes to them. He goes on to say that he believes his beloved was “first created” as a woman. However, Nature ended up “doting” on the fair youth and added an “addition” during his creation, which is implied to be male genitalia. Sonnet 20 is often contested in terms of the relationship between the speaker and his beloved. Some scholars interpret the speaker’s lament over Nature’s decision to make the fair youth male as an indication of a deep platonic affection. Others view the sonnet as a whole as an admission of the speaker’s homosexual interest in the youth.

Sonnet 19 establishes Time as a villainous force that destroys the body, plucking the teeth from a tiger and blunting the paws of a lion. The speaker tells Time to do what it will, but he “forbids” it to allow his love’s face to be spoiled by wrinkles or other signs of age. This sonnet is addressed directly to Time, contributing to the personification of the abstract concept as something tangible that can be reasoned with. The concept of time as a villain is a common theme. Andrew Marvell’s 1681 poem [“To His Coy Mistress”] (https://www.owleyes.org/text/to-his-coy-mistress) is another famous example that portrays aging and time as the enemies of lovers.