Sonnet 13 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence.
In the sonnet, the speaker declares his admiration and love for the beauty of youth, but warns this figure of youth that he will lose it if he doesn't revitalize himself through offspring. The primary arguments made in this procreation sonnet are the maintenance of self-identity and duty to one's own heritage. His tone throughout the sonnet is intimate, highlighting the theme of affection for youth that is prevalent in the first seventeen sonnets.
Paraphrase
The sonnet begins with the speaker expressing lament to youth with "O that you were yourself!" More simply, the speaker deplores that youth isn't absolute and permanent, and with "yourself", the speaker is referring to the figure of youth's soul. Following this, the speaker address the youth as "love", further developing the speaker's theme of adoration and personal affection for youth. From there, the speaker tells this youth that "you are / No longer yours, than you yourself here live", saying that the youth's identity is constantly fading away from him as he ages, as if he is unbecoming himself. With the lines "Against this coming end you should prepare / And your sweet semblance to some other give", the speaker is simply saying that the youth's life is slipping away day after day, and if he doesn't get married and have children, he will lose his identity to his death. Continuing from this idea, the speaker says "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", all meaning that whatever beauty the youth still has is only temporary (leased to him) and will be lost, unless he has children who continue the legacy and identity of his youthful beauty even after death. Continuing with "Who lets so fair a house fall to decay," the speaker refers to the youth as this "house" in reference to his fair body and his fair lineage. Adding to this, the speaker continues on with "Which husbandry in honour might uphold, / Against the stormy gusts of winter's day / And barren rage of death's eternal cold?". These lines suggest that by taking up marriage and becoming a husband and a father, the youth might be able to maintain his essence of youth against the devastations of time and age. This, the speaker compares to storms and winter, ending with the threat of the eternal nature of death, at which point the youth would be too late in renewing himself. In the ending couplet, the speaker mirrors his starting wail of lament in line 1 with "O! none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know, / You had a father: let your son say so." Here, the speaker is separating the youth figure he adores from those he considers foolish, or "unthrifts", and connects that to the youth's inheritance, suggesting that only "unthrifts" would ignore their inheritance of life and youth and deny their own fathers' wish for continued lineage and legacy.
Context
Sonnet 13 is included as one of Shakespeare's Procreation sonnets. Sonnets 1-17 are an introduction to the plot of the complete sonnets. Each of these 17 sonnets is a different argument to convince the young man to marry a woman and have children to continue his legacy and to have his beauty live on. In Sonnet 13, the poet uses his undying love for the young man as a motivator and as an encourager for the youth to marry a woman and eternalize his beauty by having children.
The Sonnets collection is suspected to have been written during an unknown timeline of years beginning prior to 1598 and then more periodically from 1599 to 1609. 1609 is the year that the collection was finally published for the first time. Shakespeare's book of sonnets is dedicated to "Mr. W.H.". There has been much academic speculation and conversation over who W.H. could be. One argument is that Anne Hathaway, the bride of Shakespeare, is the mysterious W.H. because of her masculine features. Another possibility is that W.H. could refer to Anne's brother, William Hathaway. The initials are appropriate for the dedication.