Introduction "To be or not to be: that is the question." – William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act III, Scene I) This line is one of William Shakespeare’s most recited and most famous quote. If people think about Shakespeare, they immediately think about his famous plays like: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet or Othello. Today, he is known as one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. Still, there is more behind Shakespeare`s reputation as the writer of the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”. He also wrote poems like Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece (1593 and 1594), as well as many sonnets, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. “The Sonnets of William Shakespeare appeared, without his permission, in 1609 and advertised as “never before imprinted”. [] The 1609 quarto, entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets, was published by Thomas Thorpe, printed by George Eld, and sold by William Aspley and William Wright.” (William Shakespeare Sonnets: william-shakespeare.info) The sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as love, mortality, beauty and time which can be divided in two parts. The first 126 sonnets address a young man, who he referred to as the `fair youth`, whereas sonnets 127 to 154 address an older woman, who W. Shakespeare referred to as the `Dark Lady`. William Shakespeare had his own way of expressing the themes of his sonnets. The already mentioned themes and other, the metaphors, the rhetorical moments and the form he used, shape the sonnets in a very vivid and descriptive way. The focus of this term paper will be on the so called “Procreation Sonnets," which are sonnets 1-17. In these 17 sonnets the poet addresses a young man. He suggests that the young man has to procreate in order to pass on his beauty. This term paper shows the use of metaphor in Shakespeare´s procreation sonnets in order to trace Shakespeare´s attitude towards the beauty of the young man. Therefore, the theoretical part of the term paper gives a short overview on Shakespeare´s sonnets. In addition to that, the term paper defines the term "metaphor." In order to understand the content, the themes and the use of metaphors in the procreation sonnets, I have selected three sonnets, namely sonnet 1, 5 and 7. In this section I will summarize the sonnets shortly, to then analyse the key metaphors in order to conclude the main thesis. 2. Shakespeare’s Sonnets William Shakespeare´s dramatic works have been and still are very influential for literature science. He was the author of 37 plays as well as 154 sonnets. Shakespeare´s sonnets are very different from his plays. Still, they contain some dramatic elements and deal with very personal themes. Each of the sonnets can be taking on its own but it can also be in a relation to the poems around it. As it has been mentioned before, the two addresses of the sonnets are referred to as the young man and the dark lady. The sonnets were published in 1609 by Thomas Thorp. There is much that we don`t know with certainty, and probably will never know, about Shakespeare´s sonnets. We do not know if Shakespeare authorized publication of the 1609 quarto; therefore, we do not know if the order of the 154 sonnets and the inclusion of A Lover´s Complaint represent Shakespeare´s arrangement, publisher Thomas Thorp's, or someone else´s. (Schiffer 2010: 45, in Schoenfeldt) We also don't know much about who he wrote his sonnets for. At the time of the publication of the sonnets, they were dedicated to a “Mr. W.H.”. Like we don´t know much about the young man and the dark lady, we also don't know much about the identity of this Mr. W.H. This therefore stays a mystery. Some people have speculated that the young man in the sonnets is Mr. W.H.. Cathy Shrank adds that “[] the two most ´favoured´ candidates for the young man – and dedicatee – of the Sonnets are Henry Wriothesles, third earl of Southampton (1573-1624) and William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke (1580-1630)”. (2009: 111) Basically eve