The speaker is scolding a beautiful young man who refuses to have children, and it’s drenched in frustration and real concern. There’s a sting in the opening: how can you claim to love anyone when you treat your own future so carelessly? You’re adored by many, the speaker admits, but you love no one – and the proof is that you’re consumed by a kind of murderous hatred toward yourself. That “beauteous roof” is his body, his temporary home, and by not repairing it through offspring, he’s basically conspiring to tear it down. Then the tone shifts, almost pleading: change your mind so I can change mine. It’s wrong for hate to have such a lovely dwelling. Be as kind as your face is beautiful, or at least show yourself some mercy. The final couplet frames it as a personal request – for love of me, create another you – and the mood is urgent, intimate, and weighted with the dread of beauty vanishing forever.
Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any — Summary
For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any, Who for thy self art so unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many, But that thou none lov'st is most evident: For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate, That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate Which to repair should be thy chief desire. O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind: Shall hate be fairer lodg'd than gentle love? Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind, Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove: Make thee another self for love of me, That beauty still may live in thine or thee.