Shakespeare's Sonnet 9

Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,That thou consum’st thyself in single life?Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;The world will be thy widow and still weepThat thou no form of thee hast left behind,When every private widow well may keepBy children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind:Look! what an unthrift in the world doth spendShifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,And kept unused the user so destroys it.No love toward others in that bosom sitsThat on himself such murd’rous shame commits.

Is it fear of bringing tears to a widow’s eyes that makes you use up your life unmarried? Ah, if you happen to die without children, the world will mourn you like a wife without a husband. The world will be your widow and keep weeping because you left no image of yourself behind, while any individual widow can keep her husband’s appearance in mind through her children’s eyes. Look: whatever a spendthrift spends in the world merely changes hands, for the world still enjoys it. But beauty wasted is lost to the world, and by keeping it unused, its owner destroys it. There is no love for others in the heart of someone who commits such shameful murder against himself.