Sonnet 2

I chose this poem because the idea of your legacy being carried on by child and your bloodline being continued by your child is of importance to me because that is your creation and the mark that you leave on earth when you pass.

Shakespeare structures sonnet 2 as he commonly does, using three quatrains and a couplet. Shakespeare follows an ABABCDCDEFEFGG pattern. In the first quatrain he discusses the toll age takes on on the beauty of another using personification, giving the winter the ability to "besiege thy brow" to depict a vivid image of the deterioration of physical beauty and youth of the subject who is unclear at this point.

The second quatrain I feel is a necessary transitioning portion of the poem that responds to the first quatrain. It seems as if he is saying that the lust and the beauty is gone and it leaves them in shame. I say them because he uses the words "were" in the last line of the quatrain. At this point I feel he is discussing aging not of a another alone, but including himself. It confuses me.

The third and final quatrain is important because he is talking more about another and it supports my belief that in this poem he is talking about another becoming old. He begins to talk about someone being succeeded by a child. When he uses words like "thine" and "thou" Shakespeare hints that he is addressing another.

The final two lines is a couplet. In this couplet he continues discussion of a child as a successor saying that the new child gives life to the old using his last line to exemplify that. "And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold" Because when you die your blood is cold and while you are alive it is warm there is a double meaning to that last

line. Shakespeare is saying that the old person will live through the new child and in actuality your blood

is in your offspring so it makes sense in two ways.