# Sonnet 3

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**Sonnet 3** is one of [154 sonnets](/source/Shakespeare's_sonnets) written by the English playwright and poet [William Shakespeare](/source/William_Shakespeare). It is often referred to as a [procreation sonnet](/source/Procreation_sonnets) that falls within the [Fair Youth](/source/The_Sonnets#Fair_Youth) sequence.

In the [sonnet](/source/Sonnet), the speaker is urging the man being addressed to preserve something of himself and something of the image he sees in the mirror by fathering a child. The “young man” of this and other sonnets is a subject of debate. Some think it may be based on [William Herbert](/source/William_Herbert,_3rd_Earl_of_Pembroke), others consider [Henry Wriothesley](/source/Henry_Wriothesley,_3rd_Earl_of_Southampton). There are other candidates as well.

## Structure

The poem takes the form of a Shakespearean sonnet: fourteen [decasyllabic](/source/Decasyllable), [iambic pentameter](/source/Iambic_pentameter) lines, that form three [quatrains](/source/Quatrains) and a concluding rhyming [couplet](/source/Couplet). It follows the form's [rhyme scheme](/source/Rhyme_scheme): ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each line of the first quatrain of Sonnet 3 exhibits a final extrametrical syllable or *feminine ending*. The first line additionally exhibits an initial reversal:

 /   ×    ×   /   ×    /     ×  /     ×   / (×)
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest (3.1)

- / = *ictus*, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = *nonictus*. (×) = extrametrical syllable.

## Analysis

In this sonnet, the poet is urging the 'fair youth' to preserve something of himself and something of the image he sees in the mirror by fathering a child, "Now is the time that face should form another".

The message is reiterated in the last lines of the poem: "But if thou live, remember'd not to be, / Die single, and thine image dies with thee." Not only will the youth die, but so will his image — the one in his mirror, and also his image that may be seen borne by his yet-to-be child.[1]

## References

1. Larsen, Kenneth J. ["Note"](http://www.williamshakespeare-sonnets.com/note). *Essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets*. Retrieved 17 November 2014.

## Further reading

- Baldwin, T. W. *On the Literary Genetics of Shakspeare's Sonnets*. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.
- Hubler, Edwin. *The Sense of Shakespeare's Sonnets*. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.

## External links

- [A paraphrase of the sonnet](http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/3detail.html)
- [Shakespeare's sonnets.com on Sonnet 3](http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/iiicomm.htm)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sonnet 3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_3) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_3?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.