Sonnet 6

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Sonnet 6 by William Shakespeare (continued from Sonnet 5) Then let not winter's ragged hand deface, In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled: Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed. That use is not forbidden usury, Which happies those that pay the willing loan; That's for thy self to breed another thee, Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, If ten of thine ten times refigured thee: Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, Leaving thee living in posterity? Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

[edit] Synopsis

The opening line of this sonnet leads directly from the end of Sonnet 5, as though the two poems were intended as one, itself perhaps a reference to the idea of pairing through marriage that informs the first 17 sonnets. The sweet "vial" refers to the distillation of perfume from petals mentioned in Sonnet 5, but is now directly explained and expanded as an image of sexual impregnation in order to produce children. The image of "usury" refers to replication of the invested "essence" in offspring, in the same way that money earns interest. The propagation of chldren can never be exploitative. A tenfold return on the investment is to be desired.

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