PatH, my take is he is pleading with a women - He is telling her to look into a mirror (glass) to ascertain now is the time to create another, who will be a new, fresh copy of the face in the mirror. Beguile (to enchant) the world rather than, being a women who is not so fair because she did not choose to be a mother (tillage of the husbandry) in spite of his fondness for her therefore, his "self-love" will be encased within himself as if a tomb and so, no posterity for him.
Interesting, since for the last three poems I had a sense that was making me uncomfortable that this line of wooing was rather selfish - almost like years ago how guys used to talk girls into early sex with the line 'if you love me' or 'you do not love me unless'. Today girls and boys do not hold the constraints of 50 and more years ago. This Sonnet actually comes right out and says, it is 'his' "self-love" and since he is infatuated with her beauty and charm she is supposed to see the wisdom in coupling with him for the purpose of posterity.
Today's standards that line of logic seems crass and yet, when you read books on the history of marriage that was the reason for marriage - and when, as a child we learned about the seven sacraments of which marriage became one of them during the Council of Trent in 1547, the concept or rather purpose of a Roman Catholic marriage was just that; "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."
I remember that being such a big aha for me when we studied it because my father and his family were German Lutheran where as, my Mom and Grandmother were Catholic. My father's sister had nothing positive to say about my sister and I attending parochial school - ah so... memories.
Hmmm just thought - wait, I do not want to go there - it is too easy to see and make the ties of Shakespeare's life experiences to his writing - again, others have done that Ad Infinitum so back to; "...the immediacy of the beauty expressed, the turn of phrase, so we can be astounded anew with the flow of thought and the lovers argument for accepting love."
So then he suggests as she looks into the mirror she can see her mother as in turn her mother can see you in herself which is reminding the mother of her youth or prime (April) which he suggests is her golden time and through her child that he wants her to create with him and despite her wrinkles this child will look as she does during this, her golden age.
Then the last two lines that are typically the retort that in this Sonnet seems to be more of the same, that if she dies single, (so marriage evidently goes along with this agreement for children) and so if she dies alone there will be no future image for her to see herself again.
This whole story line could be a metaphor to the creation of many initiatives. Youth could be the early aspects of a creative thought that if the idea is not matched with the 'tools' of creation than there is no prototype of the idea and it has no future.
There is a saying, we have more ideas than time to bring them to fruition and then, it is easy to bottle up bringing to life any idea as we grapple with how worthy the outcome of the idea - Like brainstorming where some, before they open their mouth want to judge if the idea has legs, is really just pie in the sky. Part of encouraging some to share their ideas is a similar argument, 'God gave you the capacity to think of these ideas and so you are playing judge over God's gifts'... and so forth.
Of the three similar Sonnets this one appears to be laid out like a legal brief - and I wonder if the concept of looking in a glass was the suitor enticing with vanity. Seems to me that was one of the 'sins' of the time - wasn't this when Puritans were denouncing all the ribbons and bows on clothing and sumptuary laws and taxation dictated what folks were supposed to wear. And thinking on it, very few owned a mirrors. Yes, just looked it up - mirrors were by and large still imported from Venice although, there was Sir Robert Mansell’s glass house in London in 1625. The process of making a mirror was such they were rare until the seventeenth century. Hmm so this Sonnet including the concept of a mirror (looking glass) was as if today a Sonnet was written something to do with using a computer or really owning something even more rare because of its newness.
I keep forgetting Shakespeare was actually a product of the sixteenth century rather than the seventeenth century. He was born in 1564 although died in 1616 - knowing this is commemorating 400 years since his death I do not think I will ever forget the date of his death.
The line that had me laugh out-loud - the audacity - the archaic way of suggesting sex - "the tillage of thy husbandry" - oh Lordy... talk about keeping women in their place - they are the farm land that 'he' gets to till - yikes.
