What is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 4 about?
In Sonnet 4, Shakespeare speaks to a beautiful young person and asks why they are not passing their beauty on by having children. The speaker compares beauty to wealth: if you keep it only for yourself and let it disappear when you die, you have wasted it. The poem is part of a group of sonnets that urge a young man to have children so that his qualities can live on.
The poem’s argument, step by step
- Beauty is like money. The young person has been given beauty, but does not use it to create anything lasting.
- Life is temporary. Beauty and youth will fade, just as a person eventually dies.
- A child could carry beauty forward. Having a child would allow some of the young person’s beauty to continue into the future.
- The poem ends with an accounting metaphor. The speaker imagines that, at the end of life, the young person will have to explain how they used their gifts.
Line-by-line explanation
“Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend”
The speaker calls the young person’s beauty “unthrifty”—wasteful or careless. “Spend” suggests using up money, but here the thing being spent is beauty.
“Upon thy self thy beauty’s legacy?”
The young person is using their beauty only on themselves. “Legacy” means something valuable passed down to future generations. The speaker asks why the person is not sharing their beauty through a child.
“Nature’s bequest gives nothing but doth lend,”
Nature has given the young person their gifts, but the speaker says these gifts are more like a loan than permanent property.
“And being frank, she lends to those are free:”
Nature gives generously to people who are generous in return. “Frank” means open-handed or generous, and “free” suggests someone willing to give rather than keep everything.
“Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse”
The speaker sharply calls the young person a beautiful miser. A “niggard” is someone who refuses to share. The word “abuse” means misuse here: the person is misusing the gift of beauty by keeping it to themselves.
“The bounteous largess given thee to give?”
“Bounteous largess” means a generous gift. The speaker’s point is that the young person received beauty so it could be given onward, especially through having children.
“Profitless usurer, why dost thou use”
An “usurer” is someone who lends money for profit. The speaker calls the young person a “profitless” lender because they have the chance to make their beauty last, but do not do so.
“So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?”
The young person possesses an enormous “sum”—a great amount of beauty—yet will not live forever. The line points out that their beauty will vanish if it is not passed on.
“For having traffic with thyself alone,”
“Traffic” means trade or business. The young person is conducting business only with themselves, keeping all their gifts for their own use.
“Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.”
By refusing to share their beauty, the person is ultimately cheating themselves. They lose the chance to have something of themselves continue after death.
“Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,”
“Nature calls thee to be gone” is a gentle way of referring to death. The speaker asks what will happen when the young person’s life ends.
“What acceptable audit canst thou leave?”
An “audit” is an examination of accounts. The speaker asks what record of good use the young person will leave behind. Without sharing their gifts, their account may be empty.
“Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,”
If the young person does not pass on their beauty, it will be buried in the grave along with them.
“Which, used, lives th’ executor to be.”
If the beauty is used—most likely by having a child—it can live on through that child. An “executor” is someone who carries out a will; here, the image suggests beauty being handed forward after the person’s death.
Important techniques and themes
- Extended metaphor: Beauty is described as money, a loan, a gift, and an inheritance. These comparisons make the argument about passing on beauty feel like a question of responsibility.
- Rhetorical questions: The speaker asks many questions to challenge the young person and make them think about their choices.
- Personification: “Nature” is presented as a generous lender who gives people gifts that should be passed on.
- Time, death, and legacy: The poem contrasts temporary human life with the possibility of something continuing into the future.
- Selfishness and generosity: The speaker criticizes keeping a gift only for oneself and praises sharing it.
Form and sound
Sonnet 4 is an English, or Shakespearean, sonnet with 14 lines. It is written mostly in iambic pentameter, a rhythm that often has five pairs of syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable of each pair. Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The final two lines form a couplet, which sums up the speaker’s message: beauty that is not passed on will be buried, while beauty that is shared can continue.
In one sentence
Sonnet 4 argues that beauty is a temporary gift, and that a person should share it so it can leave a lasting legacy.