Sonnet 2

The second sonnet by Shakespeare is similar to the first in that he is trying to convince the young man to have children. He is trying to influence the young man to have children by saying that he can justify his old age when the time comes. He is saying that if he grows old and loses his good looks, he will be able to use raising children as his vindication. Shakespeare is also trying to tell him in the last two lines that having a child would be like being born again. The last line reads “And see they blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.” (Shakespeare 14). I think this means that the young man, both his beauty and youth, will have a chance to “live again” through his children. Another way to look at this sonnet is that it means he wants the young man to take advantage of his youth and “seize the day”.