Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,
Of his self-love to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.
In plain English
Look at yourself in the mirror. Your face is at its peak right now—the time when you should have a child who carries your beauty forward. If you don't father a child soon, you're robbing the world and depriving some woman of the chance to be a mother.
There's no woman so beautiful that she wouldn't want your child. And no man is so self-absorbed that he'd let his own love of himself kill the chance to have children and pass himself on.
You are a mirror for your mother—she sees in you the beauty of her youth returned. Through your child, you'll see that same golden time preserved even as you age and wrinkle. But if you live and die without being remembered or having children, your image dies with you.
