Public Domain Project: Sonnet Three - Look In Thy Glass, And Tell The Face Thou Viewest

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet Three (Look In Thy Glass And Tell The Face Thou Viewest) is the 3rd of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Third of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Third 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. Shakespeare implores the fair youth to look upon himself in the mirror and take note of what he sees. It is his hope that the youth look upon his youthful exuberance and fair looks and realize that they are fleeting, but they can be carried on by fathering a child. He then asks the youth to see himself in his mother and to realize that her beauty is carried on with him. Then, of course, he has a dire warning for the youth. If he does not father a child, he will have empty “golden years” and his image will be unable to carry on past his own death.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 3 Full Poem Text

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
   But if thou live, remembered not to be,
   Die single and thine image dies with thee.