Sonnet 11

11

As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st

In one of thine, from that which thou departest;

And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow’st

Thou mayst call thine, when thou from youth convertest;

Herein loves wisdom, beauty and increase:

Without this, folly, age and cold decay.

If all were minded so, the times should cease,

And threescore year would make the world away:

Let those whom nature hath not made for store,

Harsh, featureless and rude, barrenly perish;

Look whom she best endowed, she gave the more,

Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:

She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby

Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.

General
One of the most striking features of this sonnet is the shift in metaphor from organic, recalling the early horticultural sonnets, to inorganic – as the speaker now raises the subject of 'print' and 'copy'. HV talks about this extensively,looking at the pattern of waning-and-growing in the sonnet which ends with ‘a “better” metaphor which will not require the disagreeable waning of the beloved – the inorganic metaphor of the seal that prints successive copies.’ In the last 4 lines the sonnet starts to print copies of its own words: gave, gift; bounteous, beauty; more, more; shouldst, shouldst; carved, copy; meant, print – the process of ‘copying is enacted before the reader’s eyes.

Note also the use of feminine rhyme, as in Sonnet 8: this is where the the final syllable of a line is unstressed – and so these lines ‘convey something of a dying fall', and are often used by WS to illustrate vulnerability and/or heightened emotions.

Sense
First quatrain
The speaker tells the youth that just as fast as he decays he will also grow in his child, born from that which has left him (blood/seed). And that fresh/youthful blood, which he gave when young, he may call his own, when he is no longer young.
1. fast: quickly and steadily; speedily

2.in one of thine: in the person of your child; in the womb of your wife (SB)
departest: give up/surrender, in the sense of semen. (Each orgasm was believed to shorten a man's life!)

3. blood: life

4. convertest: turn aside; left behind. This is pronounced 'convartest', to rhyme with 'departest'. The best recording I have of that is by David Tennant whose Scottish accent perfectly fits the delivery (see Audio List)

Second quatrain
The speaker tells the youth that in this course lies wisdom, beauty and increase, but if he deviates then instead folly, age and cold decay will accrue. If everyone thought the way he does then generations would stop and the sixty years would see the end of the world.
5. Herein: in my advice; in marriage and procreation; in the child itself

7.times: generations

Thomas Wilson, The Art of Rhetoric (1553): 'Let it [marriage] be forbidden...and within few years, all mankind must needs decay forever...Take away marriage, and how many shall remain after a hundred years.'

Third quatrain
Let those whom nature has made worthy of preserving – those that are harsh, featureless and ugly, die without issue. Whomever she well endowed with qualities, she gives more to, which generous gift you should nourish/foster by putting it to use.
9. for store: as a source of increase; as breeding stock (livestock kept for breeding were called ‘store beasts’ [SB]). Store may also be a reference to 'hoarded wealth', looking back to e.g. Sonnet 2.

10. featureless: without marks of distinction, shapeless, ugly
rude: crude, rough, bare

11.Like God in the parable of the talents, Nature gave more to those who already had most –see Matt 25.29:‘For unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance; But he hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he hath.’ (JK)

12.in bounty cherish: foster (take care of) by being bountiful (i.e. prolific); cherish also meant 'guard carefully'; thus this phrase embodies the paradox of several previous sonnets, that of keeping by giving, increasing by diminishing'. (SB)

Couplet
The speaker tells the youth that Nature designed him as her example of what nature can do – her stamp of authority – and in so doing meant that he should reproduce himself, and so not let the original pattern die.
13. carved: incised, in the context of seal
seal: not the wax, but the stamp which marks it. GBE: ‘The youth is pictured as Nature’s great seal by which she validated (gave authority to) her highest creations, as a monarch did in appending a seal to documents of state.'

KDJ also finds a possible echo of Song of Solomon 8.6.: ‘Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death.’

Links to works by other authors

11. Matt 25.29:

13: Song of Solomon 8.6