18 pages • 36 minutes read
Sonnet 1
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Symbols & Motifs
Rose
The motif of the rose develops the theme of The Power of Beauty. In the poem, the rose is a symbol of the typically fleeting but attractive and “sweet” (Line 8) physical ideal embodied in the young man Shakespeare addresses. Describing his wish for the addressee to live forever, the speaker praises his “beauty’s rose” (Line 2).
In the 1609 edition of the sonnets, the word “Rose” is always capitalized, while in “Sonnet 1,” it is also italicized. The editors of the Norton Shakespeare note that these formatting choices by the publisher signal to the reader that the rose “is the poet’s name for the object of his desire” (Page 1946).
The floral metaphor returns later in the poem as the speaker cautions the young man not to “Within thine own bud buriest thy content” (Line 11). In this line, the speaker argues that if the young man does not have children, his beauty will be stifled and not allowed to fully bloom—hidden in the bud of his own life, rather than shared with the world.
Food
Like roses, food is used to describe The Power of Beauty. The speaker refers to the young man’s “sweet self” (Line 8), evoking the sensory experience of both smell and taste. Additionally, ripeness—the measure that is used to determine if fruit is ready to eat—is used to describe the pinnacle of beauty, as well as the fateful reality that after ripeness lies old age and the end of life, metaphorized as spoilage: “the riper should by time decease” (Line 3).
Furthermore, if the addressee refuses to have children, he risks “Making a famine where abundance lies” (Line 7). Here, hoarding beauty by not creating progeny is connected to inflicting a particularly gruesome death from starvation on everyone else. The imagery of famine develops the theme of Defeating or Being Defeated by Death, as does the fact that the speaker accuses the young man of eating all of his own beauty without sharing, the habit of a “glutton” (Line 13). These images of physical and spiritual death based on the absence or surfeit of food reinforce the connection between the “waste” (Line 12) of food and of beauty.
Light
In “Sonnet 1,” light imagery emphasizes the connection between the young man and sources of illumination. The young man has “bright eyes” (Line 5), a description that highlights their reflective quality and their ability to shine in sunlight. Unlike people whose eyes have been clouded by age or infirmity, the young man’s “bright” eyes indicate that he is in the prime of his life.
However, the light that surrounds the young man can also be a symbol of danger and destruction. If the young man does not have children, he risks being overwhelmed by the fiery power of his beauty: By not allowing its energy to be dispersed into productive ventures like procreation, he “Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel” (Line 6). Rather than being a reflection of the sun, the star that powers the earth, the young man’s light here only fuels itself. The flame serves as a warning: To share, or multiply, the light, the young man needs to have children—create more “bright” creatures—or else face death.
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By William Shakespeare
