Poetry
“What’s Your Legacy?” Shakespeare’s Plea For Urgent Thought
His Sonnet 9 asks: money or legacy?
In this sonnet, Shakespeare confronts his friend about money.
But he also asks, “money you can leave for others, but how about your legacy”?
Our budding thoughts? Our labours? Our efforts?
The things we’ve not done yet. The hopes we have. The plans we want to execute. The changes we want to see in this world.
If you don’t work for one now, there may not be one for you to leave behind — Shakespeare might ask.
Sonnet 9
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,
That thou consum’st thy self in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind:Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it.No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.
My translation:
Are you afraid that you’d leave a widow and make her cry
That you insist on wasting away in bachelorhood?
Oh, if you die without a child,
The world weeps your death like a widow.The world will be your widow and still weep,
That you have not left a copy of yourself,
While every other widow keeps
A copy of their husband through their children’s eyes.Look — the money a wastrel spends
Only ends up elsewhere, because the world still enjoys it.
But beauty, when you die, will not recirculate,
and if kept to yourself without a child, you leave no trace of it.Your heart in your bosom has no love for others
In how you commit such a heinous act.
Not many of us are like the young man (unless your friend writes you poems telling you to have a child). Again, we know the young man is who Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to: “To The Only Begetter of These Ensuing Sonnets. Mr. W. H.” (Reference.)
Shakespeare does make us think though:
What is the legacy we want to leave?
Three thoughts, following along the sonnet.
1. Fear of Commitment
Shakespeare rebukes his friend for his fear of commitment.
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,
That thou consum’st thy self in single life?
He simply wanted to enjoy a bachelor’s life and live his way.
Not that marriage is the only way to live for others, obviously, but don’t ask me why Shakespeare wrote 17 poems on this one theme.
But it’s very telling to me how I’m quick to walk away when other things pop up and may get in the way of ‘my’ life.
When these simple but time-consuming ‘admin’ tasks come up, I try to avoid these tasks, because they interfere with ‘my plans.’ Especially when others need my attention.
But I’m not only committed to myself.
Others have a claim on my time too.
2. Wealth Circulates
From line 9 onwards, Shakespeare compares wealth and legacy.
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
His young friend, if he spends money, it’ll just end up elsewhere, and someone else can benefit or spend it.
The wealth we gain and spend does come and go, but it remains in the world.
Shakespeare may have got his inspiration from the recently translated English Psalms in the 16th century. It had an accurate portrait of people which sounds very modern:
“Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.”
People:
I. Rush about
I think about the masses of people in public transport, rushing to get to work early. But because they’re rushing, they also miss the truly important things in life.
II. Heap up wealth
Need I explain? Many people we look up to or get the most media coverage are those who earn the most. They are the new powerbrokers in politics, the new role models for young people.
III. Don’t know whose it will be.
A reminder of how money will go away when our last heartbeat goes.
Perhaps in a mocking sort of way, the world still has our money. It is unmoved by one extra or fewer individual. It sweeps the money people leave behind into its own pocket and puts it into someone else’s hand.
3. Legacy
But Shakespeare also makes us think about what we can leave behind.
But beauty, when you die, will not recirculate,
If his young friend dies, his unique qualities will die with him.
Buried to the ground. No more.
But if we’re alert readers, we’d be led to think about our own situations.
Death is humbling. Fear of death is common to mankind. A quote from Shakespeare’s English Bible again, salvation is where the Son of God
frees those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
But what about our thoughts? Our labours? Our efforts? The things we’ve not done yet. The hopes we have. The plans we want to execute. The changes we want to see in this world.
This thought softly urges us to reflect on what’s truly important.
I am still young. But when I’m old, I don’t want to find myself thinking: ‘I wish I had worked harder when I was young’, or ‘I wished I had done more of this’.
But I wonder if I have truly worked hard and ‘given it a go’, maybe I won’t ask that question 30 years later.
Many people back in Shakespeare’s day had a Christian faith and believed in eternal life. They were liberated from a fear of death.
Yet time on earth was still limited.
Wealth or legacy. Which will you choose?
If not wealth, what legacy?
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