Sonnet 13
O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
identity
legacy
mortality
procreation
O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination: then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.
What It Means
Shakespeare makes a philosophical point: you are not permanently yourself. Your physical self is a borrowed thing, held from nature as a lease. When the lease ends, you have to return it. The only way to extend yourself is to pass your self on to a child. A father who 'repairs' his house well leaves it in good condition for his heirs. Maintain what you have been given and hand it on.
Context
Thirteenth in the Procreation sequence. Shakespeare uses legal language — 'lease,' 'determination' — framing the young man's life as a tenancy.
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