Sonnet 1

   This sonnet like many others of Shakespeare's expresses the importance of offspring.  The first quatrain of the poem expresses that beauty is desirable and that beauty should be kept alive.  In the third line, "riper by time decease" could translate to time decreasing one's beauty.  This means that youth is beautiful and aging reduces that beauty. Staying consistent to the theme, the next line of the sonnet tells that having an heir will renew beauty.  Again, the second quatrain tells of diminishing beauty.  The sixth line in the sonnet is a metaphor comparing a candle to decreasing beauty.  Although the sonnet does not use the words "candle" or "decreasing beauty" in the line, the reader can infer from the words Shakespeare uses.  "Light's flame" and "self-substantial fuel" can describe how a candle feeds on itself until it dies out.  This concept can be related to aging.  The sonnet continues to use metaphor to convey the idea that having a child would bring beauty to the world and that nor having a child is a selfish act.  In modern terms, the last couplet of the sonnet translates to that it is a pity to let your beauty die along wish you.  As a whole, the first sonnet is meant to encourage reproduction to keep beauty alive.