SONNET 16	PARAPHRASE
But wherefore do not you a mightier way	Why don't you find a better way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?	to fight the tyranny of Time?
And fortify yourself in your decay	And strengthen yourself against your aging
With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?	with something better than my poor poetry?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,	Now while you are at the peak of your life,
And many maiden gardens yet unset	horticultural metaphor meaning: and with many young women
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,	with no other wish but to bear your children,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit.	much better than any painted portrait.
So should the lines of life that life repair,	So that the renewal of life by procreation,
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,	which the aging of Time, or my novice writing,
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,	neither within or without can keep you beautiful,
Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.	or make you live in the eyes of men.
To give away yourself keeps yourself still,	By giving yourself to a marriage, you retain yourself
And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.	and you will live on, created out of the sweetness of love.