Public Domain Project: Sonnet Six - Then Let Not Winter's Ragged Hand Deface

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet Six (Then Let Not Winter’s Ragged Hand Deface) is the 6th of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Sixth of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Sixth of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Again, Shakespeare calls upon winter as a parallel to the process of aging. This sonnet seems almost to be a continuation of the previous sonnet, in fact. Calling upon much of the same imagery of distilled flowers and brutal winters. Then comes the math. He starts equating having children directly to happiness and fulfillment and tells the fair youth, if he were to have ten children, he would be ten times the happier and content! And, again, the constant warning persists. The fair youth will die someday and he’d better have children before that happens, lest the worms be his only heir.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 6 Full Poem Text

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
   Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
   To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.