Sonnet 53
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
beauty
ideal
shadow
perfection
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Speak of the spring and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear;
And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
What It Means
What is the young man made of? Shadows follow him everywhere. He is both Adonis and Helen of Troy — both ideals of male and female beauty are only shadows of what he actually is. Describe any beautiful thing and it's a pale version of him. This is extravagant praise compressed into fourteen lines, and it works because of the philosophical frame: he is the substance; everything else is shadow.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The comparison to both Adonis (male ideal) and Helen of Troy (female ideal) is Shakespeare's most explicit statement of the young man's transcendent beauty.
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