The careful crafting and design of poetry condenses the amount of text needed to convey information. This is true of all art, as works are often judged qualitatively based on what they “say.” Good works may contain one or two layers of meaning hidden behind their lines, but a masterpiece has an infinite amount of knowledge hidden in the spaces between the words. Scholars such as Shakespeare, Keats, and Albee construct vast symbolic subsystems in their plays that interact within the confines of the work's consciousness. The actualization of a poet's conception is likened to the infinity of two mirrors facing each other. As one approaches a masterpiece (studying it), more and more layers are revealed and one is able to see the limitless possibilities of its analysis. As with the word "glass" in Shakespeare's sonnet number three, a single word can reverse meanings and resonate with clarity the soul of the masterpiece. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Victorian times, the word glass, while retaining its current meaning, could easily refer to a mirror or reflective surfaces like water. Sonnet number three uses these meanings to show the paradox of legacies. The word appears and is spoken of both literally and metaphorically. It is important to realize that the derogatory interpretations that arise from the meaning of the word "glass" do not necessarily contradict each other. Instead, both meanings are recognized in a deeper contextual message, and all of the images in sonnet number three combine to pose a question between fleshly offspring and artistic inheritance. The first mention of the word appears in the first line as a strong command to the reader. The poem commands an abrasive self-evaluation and seemingly alienation from the physical body. “The Face You're Looking at” (1) contains no possessive article that would connect a reader to the image even though mentally they may be one and the same person. This alienation leads to the second line in which the author, like a persuasive mother, calls for the reader's procreation. The face in the mirror is precarious both in life and as an alienated object in the poem. Its repair and conservation are part of this encouraged form of youthful renewal. Cleverly, this idea is reinforced by a rhyme scheme that connects the renewal and stationing of the image to reflection through the rhyme of lines one and three. An entirely different interpretation of the quatrain becomes apparent when "glass" is understood in its traditional sense of translucency. The first line now invokes two separate digits instead of a single split digit. The poem's awareness of itself now becomes visible when the reader is asked to inspire others to act. The poem and its commands are cries addressed to the posterity of oneself. They exude an importance that can “seduce the world” (4). Additionally, each line of the first quatrain contains an additional dangling syllable. Underscoring the message of the quatrain, the eleven-syllable lines weigh down the poem, which predicts an affirmation and not a condemnation by the final couplet. As a result, the poem's self-consciousness and the author's virility call into question the true earthly consummation of romantic couples. These first four lines may, instead of a plea for the preservation of humanity, be a poem's petitions for its own survival. The second and final mention of the word glass is. 495.