Sonnet XI -- Shakespeare

Shakespeare 's Sonnet 11

Look whom she best endowed she gave the more

Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish

The 16th century was a favorable one for poets . To be exact , it was the time during the reign of the Queen Elizabeth I . At that time poets opened such subjects as Englishness , love , violence and the turmoil of human emotions . Poetry was considered the most polished form of literary expression unlike the writing of plays which was often considered vulgar . One of the poetic forms was a sonnet . Shakespeare wrote

his sonnets between 1594 and 1597 . In the late 1500 's it was fashionable for English gentleman authors to write sonnets , lyric poems made up of 14 lines

This poetic form had its own peculiarity which lies in the following : no single sonnet can be picked out without looking at the meaning of the sonnets all together . Only by analyzing the entire set of sonnets one could discern their purpose as set forth by Shakespeare . The meanings of the sonnets were all relative . It might be fully admitted that the sonnets stood in a very different category from that of the plays (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , 1907-21

The eleventh sonnet is one of the Shakespeare 's first 26 sonnets which are clearly addressed to a young man whom the poet describes as "beauty 's rose (Sonnet 1 ) and often refers to as "my love " Shakespeare clearly defines his love for the young man as non-sexual (Sonnet 20 . In 17 of the sonnets Shakespeare urges the young man to get married and have children . There are another one hundred and one sonnets , also written to a young man (probably the same young nobleman as in the first 26 . These have a variety of themes , such as the beauty of the loved one destruction of beauty competition with a Rival Poet despair about the absence of a loved one and reaction toward the young man 's coldness . Shakespeare urges the young man to have children so that his beauty will be preserved in posterity and therefore time will not have won the battle (About Shakespeare 's Love Sonnets , 2004

As said above , the eleventh sonnets belonged to this first group of Shakespeare 's sonnets dedicated to the young man . This sonnet is addressed to that man . Poet tried to encourage this young man to use his beauty and let it live in his children

In the first lines Shakespeare calmed the young man by telling him that his fast ageing would be reimbursed by fast growing of his offsprings But one should use this time while one is young . Shakespeare was sure that this beauty , this youth could come only from young parents . He convinces the young man to take advantage while this youth is still in him

Shakespeare tells the young man that when he grows old he will be young in his children and that " Herein lives wisdom , beauty and increase Without this , folly...