Context
Shakespeare's sonnets do not exactly adhere to the norms of the sonnet form established by the Italian poet, Petrarch. According to Robert Matz, "Shakespeare transforms the sonnet convention". Shakespeare brings in topics and themes that were unusual at the time. Shakespeare's audience would have interpreted such an aggressive tone as entirely improper encouragement of procreation. In fact, the other sonnets of the time revered chastity. However, Shakespeare "does not engage in stock exaltation of the chastity of the beloved, but instead accuses the young man of gluttonous self-consumption in his refusal to produce a 'tender heir' who would continue his beauty beyond the inexorable decay of aging". Sonnets are often about romantic love between the speaker and the beloved but Shakespeare does not do this. Instead, Shakespeare urges the young man, the beloved, to have sex and procreate with a woman in marriage. Marriage in Shakespeare's time was mainly functional. If in fact Shakespeare’s sonnet was about a beloved that was a man, then this was an entirely new concept.
Read more about this topic: Sonnet 1
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