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Herbert SONNET NO. 9             Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye,         That thou consumest thy self in single life?         Ah, if thou issue less shalt hap to die,         The world  will wail thee like a mateless wife,         The world  will be thy widow and still weep,         That thou no form of thee hast left behind,         When every private widow  well may keep,         By childrens eyes- her husbands shape in mind:         Look what an unthrift in the world  doth spend         Shifts 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 sits,         That on himself such murderous shame commits.

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    Note the repetition of the following words, we find-the
  world, the world, the world, the world, the world, widow, widow,
  widow.
  2nd Line.   This means by means of celibacy.
  14th Line.   Murderous shame is shameful murder. Compare
               "Alls well that ends well ", Act 1, Scene 1. " He
               that hangs himself is a virgin-virginity murders
               itself ".
    Here Bacon asks Herbert if he has remained single because
  he did not wish to have a widow who would weep for him when
  he died.   That if he died without issue the world would weep
  for him like a mateless wife (a widow) who has been left without
  children.  That a widow would be able to keep her husband
  in mind if she had his children.  That what an unthrift (a
  prodigal) spends, shifts (evades) his position but the waste of
  beauty comes to an end and that if beauty is not used-it is
  destroyed and the man who destroys it has no love for others.
  
  

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