Shakespeare Sonnet One

In this sonnet, Shakespeare is encouraging the boy of whom he's directing it toward to reproduce and settle down. What the speaker is saying, is that people want more of beauty, they want to make sure beauty never dies. By this boy that Shakespeare addresses (which is believed to be W.H. a young man of a royal family who hired Shakespeare as the family's poet) having children, beauty will live on.

The line, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel," (Shakespeare 8) explains that by him not settling down, not getting married, and not having children, he is cheating himself out of exposing his beauty further. He is trying to stress that it would be an awful waste for him not to have a child. He even goes as far as to say it's downright selfish of him not to have a child.

In a round about way, Shakespeare is complimenting the boy, as well as scolding him for not using his beauty to his advantage.