1 Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,
Is it from fear of making a widow weep, Are you afraid of the pain of leaving a widow behind, afraid of hurting someone
2 That thou consum’st thyself in single life?
That you consume yourself in staying single? that you refuse to marry and have a family? so you stay alone
3 Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
Ah, if you die without heirs, But if you die childless, but if you die without kids
4 The world will wail thee like a makeless wife,
The world will mourn you like a widow without a mate, the world will grieve like a widow with no one left. the world will be your widow
5 The world will be thy widow and still weep,
The world will be your widow and weep endlessly, The world becomes your widow, forever weeping, grieving forever
6 That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
Because you left no image of yourself behind, because you left nothing of yourself for the future. you left nothing behind
7 When every private widow well may keep,
When every ordinary widow can preserve Whereas any widow can keep but widows can keep
8 By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind:
Through children's eyes her husband's image alive in memory. their husband's face alive in their children's faces. their husband's face in the kids
Volta Shifts from accusation to explanation: private widows can keep their husbands' memory through children; the world has no such comfort.
9 Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Consider: when a wasteful person spends wealth in the world, When someone wastes money, it just shifts around— when people waste money
10 Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
It only changes hands, the world still benefits. someone else still gets it and enjoys it. the world still has it
11 But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,
But when beauty is wasted, it ends completely, But beautiful things that are wasted—they're just gone. but beauty wasted is lost forever
12 And kept unused the user so destroys it:
And kept unused, the person possessing it destroys it. locked away unused, it's destroyed by the person who has it. the person holding it kills it
13 No love toward others in that bosom sits
No love for others lives in that heart There's no love for others in someone like that, there's no love in that heart
14 That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.
Who commits such murderous shame upon himself. who commits such murderous shame against themselves. just shame and murder