Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Reproductive Labour

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shakespeare’s procreation sonnets enjoin a young man to sire an heir so as not to deny his beauty to posterity, employing the persuasive techniques of poetry to facilitate the act of childbearing. While existing studies of reproduction and early modern literature have focused on literature’s discursive and ideological effects, the procreation sonnets invite us to consider the direct, material involvement of poetry in the reproductive process. This essay argues that the procreation sonnets represent their efforts as a form of reproductive labour, drawing links between the craft of poetry, the artificial propagation of plants, and various forms of early modern matchmaking. The sonnets show that poetic production and biological reproduction are interwoven and mutually dependent. While the commemorative work of poetry appears to be an alternative to physical procreation, it is nevertheless contingent on biological reproduction: the sonnets may only preserve the image of the young man “So long as men can breathe”. But the sonnets also draw attention to ways in which they work to condition biology, acting upon the body in a manner analogous to nursing or grafting.