Reflection of Sonnet 1

This sonnet is quite formal, as sonnets go. It addresses the audience in a round-about way. Assuming this poem is to Mr. W.H., and was commissioned by his parents, is seems like it is trying only to plant the seeds of an idea, not try to force them. It is outright suggesting to procreate, to make beauty live on, because it is human nature to want more of what is beautiful. It threatens negative qualities of selfishness and gluttony and promotes procreation. The oxymoron in line eight can be said to make the point that in one person, there is good, but the potential for evil as well. The speaker seems to use many comparisons and metaphors to make the point understood. In the third line, however, the speaker is quite blunt reading “His tender heir might bear his memory.” This is a very direct way of persuading the audience in knowing the direction that the speaker is taking because the first lines that were more open to interpretation.