Sonnet Number One

Sonnet Number One's meaning is most accurate when viewed in a historical sense and by asking questions pertaining to why it was written.  Shakespeare may have written it to the boy in order to encourage him to have children.  The boy was getting older, and his parents most likely wanted an outsider to reinforce the ideas that they had for their son or even put them into his head.  The sonnet states that people want more of what is beautiful.  They do not want to become old and lose their nice, youthful looks.  It states that even though this is inevitable, one way to escape from some of it is to have children so that your nice and youthful looks may be passed on from generation to generation. In the sonnet, Shakespeare also uses many words to convey that it is a waste for the boy not to have kids.  He uses words such as glutton in line thirteen, having a meaning of selfish hoarding or extravagant waste.  Essentially, the use of words such as this give an overall impression to the reader that the poem was written to convey to the boy that he was being selfish by not having children.