Would anyone else like to respond to this posted question?

Question

I am just wondering if there are any other opinions?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgHZG2x7fz5zePWQ5mRbhOnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071202230538AAR4LU4

Sam

Answer 1

Of course this is the first of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. The poem belongs to the first 17 sonnets often referred to as procreation sonnets whereby the poet urges the Fair Youth (sonnets 1-126 refer to him) to marry and procreate. But the sonnet reveals more than just that.
This first sonnet introduces the reader to a number of the sonnets' recurring themes: a possible homoerotic undertone (a man's appreciation of another man's beauty), the imagery of financial bondage (as in "contracted"), and the theme of selfishness and greed embodied in the fair lord's unwillingness to eternalize his beauty himself, thereby "making a famine where abundance lies." In fact, the sonnet as a whole can be encapsulated under the theme of the ravages of time, as a one-line summary of its content might be made thus: "Have a child now, beautiful man, because the clock is ticking; don't be selfish."
In line 11, the word "content" could have two very different meanings depending on the position of the stress. If we follow the iambic rhythm, the stress falls on the second syllable, giving the word the meaning of "happiness" or "pleasure," i.e. "you are burying your happiness within yourself." However, some scholars have suggested that the poet is actually making a pun, with the alternate meaning of "content" (stress on the first syllable) a reference to the fair lord's content, his beauty (or even semen: the fair lord is keeping it all to himself, thereby wasting it). It is clear that the poet was very deliberate in his choice of words - his sonnets and plays show numerous other examples of similarly subtle and bawdy puns - so such speculation may seem more reasonable as one becomes more familiar with the sonnets and Shakespeare's work as a whole.

.