Couplet
The couplet changes the tone of adoration and idolatry in the previous three quatrains with an extremely assertive proclamation of the beloved's intrinsic need to procreate (or more specifically, the world's intrinsic need of his procreation). Shakespeare contrasts the allusions to a famine in the second quatrain with allusions to gluttony by saying that the beloved is "eat the world's due" by dying without offspring. The fact that the rhythmic structure of the couplet (particularly "by the grave and thee") is so linear and simple exemplifies to some scholars Shakespeare's "consummate ability to mimic colloquial speech so that the sonnet sounds personal and conversational, rather than sententious", and that upon first reading, one may be granted the ability to absorb more of the author's message as opposed to a close contextual reading. The ominous tone in the couplet serves as a prophetic threat of an empty death without offspring to carry on the beloved's legacy.