Theme:     Young Man
Content:   A simple and direct address to the subject to have children in the face of the ravages of time and nature.

• “Oh, if you were yourself.”
• An avalanche of you's clearly placing the emphasis on the subject.

• “You should prepare for your demise by having children.”
• Directness of address to the subject continues with the you emphasis.

• “You have been leased your beauty by nature who will eventually take it back, so you should have children to replicate that youthful beauty in others.”
• Directness of address to the subject continues with the you emphasis.

• “Who would let a beautiful house fall into disrepair when it could be maintained?”
• Use of barren also echoes the “barrenness” of not having children.
• The relentless you emphasis now ceases in this quatrain to give pause for thought to a metaphor likening the subject to a decaying house against the ravages of time and nature.
• The hold in the previous quatrain is echoed in behold in this quatrain thereby linking the subject to the metaphor.
• This is an h quatrain, using h words to link the qualities of husbandry and honour to the metaphor's house and the subject's temporary hold on beauty.

• “Let your son say he had you as a father, just as you had a father.”
• O in this couplet links back to the opening O.
• This seems to be saying that the subject's father is now dead, as per Sonnet 3. Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd. Earl of Southampton, who was Shakespeare's patron, was a ward of state due to his father's earlier death which may secure the identity of the subject.
• Return of the direct you address bringing attention back on the subject.
• Conclusion of reference to the subject as love, as per line 1.