Sonnet 3

Apologies for the double spacing of Sonnet 3; I can't figure out how to change it. Here it is from Stephen Booth's Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,

Now is the time that face should form another,

Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

For where is she so fair whose uneared womb

Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?

Or who is he so fond will be the tomb

Of his self-love to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee

Calls back the lovely April of her prime;

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,

Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.

But if thou live rememb’red not to be,

Die single and thine image dies with thee.

While this sonnet is a continuation of the speaker’s plea for this man to have a child, we are introduced to another important factor of the equation: the mother of the hypothetical child. “Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother / For where is she so fair whose uneared womb / Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?” I’m curious about the choice of the word “some.” How did you all read this word? And how does this word choice relate to the obvious agriculture imagery in the rest of the sentence: “uneared,” “tillage,” and “husbandry.” This line also seems to connect with the last line in a peculiar way. Is the reference to dying “single” referring to dying without marrying and therefore without any children, or does it refer to dying without children? If it is the latter, I’m wondering if this is a common use of the word for the times.

I’m also wrestling with the connection between this mother (the hypothetical mother to the hypothetical child) and the young man’s mother mentioned in lines 9-10. What is the function of each mother in this poem? How do these references work with or against each other?

Finally, how does this poem connect with the other two we’ve read? The tone seems to be different, almost as though this one is telling the young man to indulge in his self-love (“Look in thy glass….). Does this demand reinforce or contradict the messages in the earlier sonnets?

There's lots more to explore in this poem, but I think this will get us started! Looking forward to reading your thoughts.