Question

Extract and explain the use of imagery in Shakespeare's Sonnet 2.

Accepted Answer

Shakespeare's sonnet 2 romantically centers on the temporal nature of beauty.  The poet suggests that physical beauty,  superficial and temporary, can live on through the gift of a child. William Shakespeare artfully captures this idea through his vivid imagery:
For example, one can imagine a tired face, wrinkles deeply digging into  brows and cheeks, through the lines:

When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,

Youthful and fine garments will resemble " a tatter'd weed", and beauty will be therefore lost to age.
It is obvious that speaker, acknowledging the lover's physical appeal, pleads for him to give up his "treasure of lusty days" and come to a realization that the shame of these "lusty days" rest deeply in his "sunken eyes."
Additional images close the sonnet with the image of his new found beauty "new made when thou art old" through his successor, a son who will  "see [his] blood warm" at his deathbed.

Answer

Interestingly, Shakespeare's Sonnet 2 hinges on imagery that has a dual meaning. In the first line, his use of the powerful verb "besiege" brings to mind the military imagery of an army attempting to breach the wall of a city or castle. This is how time attacks the beauty of youth. The imagery continues in line 2 with the "deep trenches" that conjure a picture of the ditches an invading army would dig. These deep trenches are the wrinkles on the aging face. Furthermore in line 3, with "livery," it suggests a soldier's uniform.
However, the poem interweaves wartime imagery with agricultural imagery. In line 2, "beauty's field" can be a battlefield, but when the "tattered weed" of line 4 appears, it brings to mind a farmer's field, and the "trenches" become cultivated rows.
From there, the poem moves on to employ the imagery of finance. The youth's beauty, which will become nothing but a "tattered weed" by the time he reaches the age of forty, will be of but "small worth." One thinks of a purchase that loses value over time rather than appreciates. Line 6 describes the beauty of youth as "treasure." Line 7 plays on that image by referring to the older man's "deep-sunken eyes." Coming after "treasure," this conjures up an image of hidden treasure found either at the bottom of an ocean or buried in the earth. The money analogy continues in line 8 with "thriftless praise," that is, it would be an extreme exaggeration to describe the sunken eyes of age as the seat of one's former beauty.
In line 11, another financial reference occurs. The future child the poet encourages the man to father will "sum [his] account," that is: represent a favorable bottom line to the man's life. The word "proving" in line 12 can also have a financial connotation; assets must be evaluated or have their authenticity proven. Thus the beautiful son will bear the image of the father, and the beauty of each will be validated by the other. One imagines a coin with the right person's image on it that proves its worth. This carries on into line 13 where the man will be "new made," that is, newly minted through the imprint of himself visible in his child.
The final line leaves visual imagery behind and evokes tactile imagery instead, referring to the "warm" blood the man will feel when beholding his son, even as the "cold" blood of old age courses in his veins.

Answer

There's some very interesting imagery at work in this sonnet. In short, the speaker is saying that all beauty eventually dies, and the best way to feel better about this in old age is to produce offspring who will allow one's beauty to live on in someone else. The imagery used, however, seems to paint time as an enemy combatant, against whom the subject's physical beauty will be unable to offer any true resistance. "Forty winters" (forty years) will "besiege" the subject's "brow," an image which immediately conjures a picture of wrinkles, like trenches, across a person's forehead—"deep trenches in thy beauty's field." Youth is described as wearing "livery," like a uniform; now, this outfit is beautiful and much admired, but by the time it has been worn for a forty years' war against time, it will no longer be the same. Indeed, it will be "a totter'd weed"—a ravaged and tattered garment which impresses nobody. Because beauty is so inevitably connected with youth, the death of youth leads to beauty losing the fight against encroaching time.
Shakespeare also uses metaphor to describe beauty as a "treasure" which should be guarded wisely. The word "thriftless" continues this idea of connection between beauty and money: it should be invested wisely so it will not be lost entirely. This sonnet uses this idea to suggest that having a child will allow an old man to "sum [his] count"—his beauty will not have been squandered, because it will have been "new made" again in the form of his offspring.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Extract and explain the use of imagery in Shakespeare's Sonnet 2.

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