Sonnet 13 claims that the young man’s self is only rented, held on a lease that ends when he dies, and that the only way to be himself again after death is to have a son, just as he himself is a father’s son.
Sonnet 13: Full Poem
O, that you were yourself! But, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination; then you were
Yourself again after yourself’s decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honor might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day
And barren rage of death’s eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 13 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 13 Means
Sonnet 13 makes the familiar case for having a child, but it speaks more tenderly than any Procreation Sonnet before it.
The first quatrain begins with a wish: if only you could remain yourself forever. But, my love, you belong to yourself only as long as you live here on earth. You should prepare for that coming end and give your sweet likeness to someone else.
The second quatrain explains how that would work. Your beauty is like a property you hold on a lease, which will run out. If you have a child, the lease would never reach its end, and you would be yourself again after your own death, because your child would carry your lovely form.
The third quatrain turns to a new image, a house. Who would let such a beautiful house fall into ruin, when careful management could keep it standing against the storms of winter and the barren cold of death? “House” means both a building and a family line, and good “husbandry” means both looking after property and becoming a husband.
The couplet answers the question. Only spendthrifts would let the house fall. And then, very simply: my dear love, you know you had a father. Let your son be able to say the same.
Sonnet 13 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 13 repeats the argument of the Procreation Sonnets, but three of its ideas are new or newly sharp.
A Self That Is Only Borrowed
The poem opens with the wish that the young man could simply be himself, permanently. The reply is that no one owns a self outright: “you are / No longer yours than you yourself here live.” Identity, like the beauty that goes with it, is on loan for a lifetime. The idea develops Sonnet 4, where Nature “gives nothing but doth lend,” and applies it not just to beauty but to the self.
The House and the Family Line
The third quatrain’s “house” is both a building that needs upkeep and a noble family that needs heirs. Letting it “fall to decay” means letting a family name die out. The storms of winter recall Sonnet 2, with its “forty winters,” and Sonnet 12, which ends facing Time’s scythe.
Fathers and Sons
Sonnet 3 reminded the young man of his mother, who sees her youth in his face. Sonnet 13 ends with his father. “You had a father” may suggest that his father is dead, and it certainly reminds him that he is himself the proof of the argument: someone else had a son, and he is that son.
Form and Language
Sonnet 13 changes how the speaker addresses the young man, and borrows its key terms from property law.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Two of its rhymes are imperfect to modern ears, “are” with “prepare” and “were” with “bear,” though both may have been closer in Shakespeare’s pronunciation. The final line is built almost entirely of one-syllable words, which makes it sound plain and final.
From “Thou” to “You”
The first twelve sonnets address the young man as “thou.” Sonnet 13 is the first to use “you,” and it is also the first to call him “love.” In Shakespeare’s English, the two pronouns carried different weight, and the switch changes the voice of the poem. The speaker sounds less like a lecturer and more like someone speaking to a person he cares about.
The Language of Leases
“Hold in lease” and “determination” are legal terms. A lease was a temporary right to property, and its “determination” was its expiry. The young man is a tenant of his own beauty, not its owner. Only a child can keep the lease from running out.
Husbandry and Unthrifts
“Husbandry” is careful management of a household or estate, and it contains the word “husband,” so good husbandry means both upkeep and marriage. Its opposite is the “unthrift,” a spendthrift who wastes what he inherits. The same money language runs through Sonnet 4, which calls the young man “Unthrifty loveliness.”
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 13 says “yourself” four times in its first seven lines, and the repetition shows what it is really asking: how anyone can remain themselves at all.
“O, that you were yourself!” is a wish that the young man could stay exactly who he is, forever. The poem answers with a paradox. The only way to be “Yourself again after yourself’s decease” is to become someone else, a child. A self cannot be kept by holding on to it. It can only be kept by giving it away, “your sweet semblance to some other give.”
What makes this sonnet different is who is making the argument. For twelve sonnets the speaker has addressed the young man formally, as “thou.” Now he says “you,” and “love,” and “Dear my love.” The wish in line 1 is no longer only advice; it is the wish of someone who does not want to lose him. That quietly changes the stakes. The speaker wants the young man to have a son, but what he wants most is the young man himself, unchanged.
The couplet brings the argument home with the simplest fact available: “You had a father.” The young man’s own existence is the evidence. Someone before him gave a self away, and he is the result. The poem asks him only to let the chain continue. But the tenderness that has entered the speaker’s voice points ahead. In a few sonnets, the speaker will stop asking for a son and start keeping the young man alive himself, in verse, as he begins to do in Sonnet 15.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 13, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 13 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets, the same unnamed figure the Procreation Sonnets urge to marry and have children.
Why Does Sonnet 13 Use “You” Instead of “Thou”?
It is the first sonnet in the sequence to switch pronouns, and the first to call the young man “love.” The change makes the speaker sound closer and more personal. Later sonnets move between “you” and “thou,” and readers still debate what each choice signals.
What Does “You Had a Father: Let Your Son Say So” Mean?
You know you had a father; make sure a son of yours can say the same about you. The line reminds the young man that he exists because someone before him had a child, and asks him to do the same.
What Does “Hold in Lease” Mean?
To hold something on a lease is to have the use of it for a set time without owning it. The young man’s beauty is leased, not owned, and the lease ends at death unless a child continues it.
What Is an “Unthrift”?
A spendthrift, someone who wastes what he has inherited. Line 13 says only such a person would let a fine house fall to ruin rather than keep it standing through marriage and heirs.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets frame Sonnet 13’s argument about selves, houses, and sons.