Sonnet 17

Sonnet 17 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is the final poem of the openning procreation sonnets within the Fair Youth sequence. The sonnet questions the poet's descriptions of the young man, believing that future generations will see them as exaggerations if the youth does not make a copy of himself by fathering a child. As in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare shows himself to be hesitant about self-assured, flamboyant, and flowery proclamations of beauty.