AZoia – SONNET 73 ANALYSIS

SONNET 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire,

Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

- William Shakespeare

The sonnet presents the classic Shakespearean structure: it is made up by 14 lines organised into 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet and the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

In the first stanza the speaking voice tells his love that what he sees in him (the speaker) is Autumn, the time of the year often used to symbolise old age and the ending of life.

The second stanza’s topic is the same as the first one: ageing. The speaking voice tells us that his lover sees in him this ageing using the metaphor of Autumn and sunset. The lyrical “I” also uses the image of a “black night” that is death.

The first line of the second and third quatrain present the same word order : “In me thou see’st the (twilight/glowing) of such (day/fire)”. Indeed this line is an incremental repetition.

This stanza presents another metaphor of ageing: the speaking voice’s lover sees in him a fire burning on its own ashes that is soon going to consume itself on the same thing that fed him and die.

This stanza is the one where Shakespeare’s metaphor of ageing and death is more evident in the sonnet, the speaker’s struggle with his running out of time is evident.

The rhyming couplet tells us that the speaker’s getting old is only making the Fair Youth’s love stronger; because he cannot love him much longer, their relationship is even more precious.

The semantics used in the sonnet are the semantics of autumn, time, and all things that are coming to an end, like the sun setting and the fire burning itself to ashes.