the second line is composed only of one-syllable words. Some scholars attribute the monosyllable closing line of the poem as a tribute to 16th century poet, George Gascoigne. Gascoigne is quoted as saying, "The more monosyllables that you use, the truer Englishman you shall seemed, and the less you shall smell of the Inkhorn". It is in this final quatrain and the concluding couplet we see one final change. The couplet of the poem describes the seemingly selfish nature of the beloved (Shakespeare chooses to rhyme "be" and "thee" here). By making the choice to not procreate, Shakespeare describes how the beloved is denying what the world deserves (his bloodline). Instead of ending the sonnet on a positive note or feeling while alternating between dark and bright tones, the tone of the couplet is negative since the sonnet is overshadowed by the themes of blame, self-interest, and famine in both quatrains two and three. The first line illustrates a regular iambic pentameter, and the seventh illustrates a variation: an initial reversal. × / × / × / × / × / From fairest creatures we desire increase, (1.1) / × × / × / × / × / Making a famine where abundance lies, (1.7) / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus. Analysis Helen Vendler comments on the overall significance of this sonnet: "When God saw his creatures, he commanded them to increase and multiply. Shakespeare, in this first sonnet of the sequence, suggests we have internalized the paradisal command in an aestheticized form: From fairest creatures we desire increase. The sonnet begins, so to speak, in the desire for an Eden where beauty’s rose will never die; but the fall quickly arrives with decease. Unless the young man pities the world, and consents to his own increase, even a successively self-renewing Eden is unavailable". Kenneth Larsen notes that Shakespeare does not begin his sequence with a customary dedicatory sonnet. Larsen also claims that the sonnet's first line echoes Genesis, the "locus biblicus of openings". The expectation recalls God's command, “bring ye forth fruite & multiplie: grow plentifully in the earth, and increase therein” (9.10; GV). Quatrain 1 Shakespeare begins Sonnet 1 with a reference to the physical beauty of “fairest creatures”, then challenges the young man's lack of a desire for an heir. According to Robert Matz, "Sonnet 1 is so far from the romantic