1 From fairest creatures we desire increase,
From the most beautiful people we want children. We look at beautiful people and think they should have kids. gorgeous people should make babies
2 That thereby beauty’s rose might never die, The core conceit of the sequence: preserving beauty through procreation.
So that beauty like a rose might never fade. That way beauty doesn't just vanish when they're gone. so beauty doesn't disappear rose: beauty and perfection (Elizabethan metaphor)
3 But as the riper should by time decease,
But when those in their prime eventually die, But as they age and eventually pass away, when they get old and die
4 His tender heir might bear his memory:
Their young successor might carry on their legacy. Their child could keep that beauty alive in the world. their kid keeps them alive
5 But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
But you, bound entirely to your own beautiful reflection, But you're locked in love with nobody but yourself, you're obsessed with yourself contracted: bound, married to (but used negatively here)
6 Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Feed your own light with your own essence, You keep your fire burning by consuming only yourself. burning yourself from the inside
7 Making a famine where abundance lies,
Creating starvation where there is plenty. You're starving the world of what you could give them. starving everyone else
8 Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
You are your own enemy, too harsh to your own beauty. You're your own worst enemy, destroying what makes you beautiful. you're destroying yourself
9 Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
You, who are right now the world's freshest beauty, You're the most beautiful thing the world has right now—the jewel in the crown. you're the world's masterpiece
10 And only herald to the gaudy spring,
The sole herald announcing spring's garish arrival, You're like spring's messenger—beautiful but that season doesn't last. spring's messenger, but spring ends
11 Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
You bury your beauty deep within yourself, unopened. You're keeping all your potential locked inside like an unopened flower. buried inside like an unopened flower bud: youth, undeveloped potential
12 And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding:
And, delicate miser, you waste your abundance through stinginess. You're being stingy with something meant to be shared. hoarding when you should give niggarding: being stingy or miserly
Volta The argument shifts from abstract principle to direct reproach, calling on the youth to 'pity the world'—moving from philosophical to emotional appeal.
13 Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
Have mercy on the world, or be a glutton yourself, Show some pity for the rest of us, or you're just selfish. help the world or you're just selfish
14 To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
Consuming the world's rightful inheritance, then taking it to your grave. You're stealing what the world deserves, then dying with it. stealing from the world then dying