Sonnet 11
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest
procreation
nature
time
mortality
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest
In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestowest
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase:
Without this, folly, age and cold decay:
If all were minded so, the times should cease
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom Nature hath not made for store,
Harsh featureless and rude, barrenly perish:
Look, whom she best endow'd she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
What It Means
The argument is generational. As you age, you should be producing a younger version of yourself. Nature is on Shakespeare's side: the world depends on procreation to survive. If everyone decided not to reproduce, the world would stop within sixty years. The young man belongs to the class of people nature intended to reproduce — he was made to carry the species forward.
Context
Eleventh in the Procreation sequence. The phrase 'she carved thee for her seal' suggests the young man was made by nature as a stamp to be pressed into the world repeatedly — to produce more copies of himself.
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