Sonnet 2

Like Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2 urges Mr. W.H. to have children. In the first quatrain, the speaker explains to the boy that once he is old, the beauty that he has now will be worth little. The second quatrain tells him that when people ask where his beauty is, and he says only within his own old self, it will be shameful.The third quatrain then suggests a better response to that question. The speaker says that the boy could say that his old appearance are due to the raising the child of his, and that the beauty he once had lives on in his offspring. The couplet ends the sonnet by implying that if the reader procreates, that he will never really die, because he will live on through his children. This sonnet mainly using the future as a scare tatic into persuading the boy, reminding him that someday he will grow old and die. Having children, however, would of course save him from this impending doom.