Sonnet 13

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<	Sonnet 13	>
O! that you were your self; but, love, you are No longer yours, than you your self here live: Against this coming end you should prepare, And your sweet semblance to some other give: So should that beauty which you hold in lease Find no determination; then you were Yourself again, after yourself's decease, When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, Which husbandry in honour might uphold, Against the stormy gusts of winter's day And barren rage of death's eternal cold? O! none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know, You had a father: let your son say so.
–William Shakespeare

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Shakespeare's sonnets

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70
71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79	80
81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90
91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	100
101	102	103	104	105	106	107	108	109	110
111	112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119	120
121	122	123	124	125	126	127	128	129	130
131	132	133	134	135	136	137	138	139	140
141	142	143	144	145	146	147	148	149	150
151	152	153	154

Sonnet 13 is the first of Shakespeare's procreation sonnets to contain a declaration of love. Throughout this sonnet are descriptions of the winter and the death in nature that this brings. The winter images captured in Sonnet 5 and Sonnet 6 reappear in this sonnet.

[edit] Interpretation and Meaning

The first line "O! that you were your self;" means that Shakespeare wants the man he is description to remain as he is unchanged, not aging. The sonnet is quite philosophical in that it asks how can a person have an identity if they are constantly changing?

The third line of this sonnet "Against this coming end you should prepare" has a Biblical connotation of the Day of Judgment.

Like many of the previous procreation sonnets it describes how the man being described needs to have children. The two lines below describe how a person's essence can be captured in their children and that by having children they would resemble their father.

Yourself again, after yourself's decease

When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.