Sonnet 16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
poetry
procreation
beauty
time
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?
And fortify yourself in your decay
With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens yet unset
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair,
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.
To give away yourself keeps yourself still,
And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.
What It Means
Shakespeare plays devil's advocate against his own poetic argument from Sonnet 15. He says: a poem is a pale copy compared to a real child. Why not use nature's way to defeat time? A child would show the world a living portrait of you, not just a painted image in verse. This sonnet walks back the optimism about poetry and reasserts the procreation case with renewed force.
Context
Sixteenth sonnet, part of the late Procreation sequence. It creates a tension with Sonnet 15 by questioning the power of verse — a debate Shakespeare returns to repeatedly.
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