Sonnet 73

In this sonnet there is not a title but only a number that makes the intelligent reader think that is part of a collection and it is written by William Shakespeare.

Considering the layout the sonnet is arranged into one octave and one sestet. There is a speaking voice that is taking to another person.

In the first quatrain, the speaking voice introduces the problem of the old age. He compares this period of his life with the autumn where the yellow leaves are moved by the wind. Indeed he is near the old age so he feels himself as a leave that is near to fall.

The second quatrain presents old age as a twilight, the writer says that he is old so he doesn’t have a lot of time to live.

In the last stanzas he compares ashes to his bed of death, the fire that represents life is consummated by what he was fond. At the end he says to her that she has to love him more than before because their love is going to finish early.

In this sonnet Shakespeare uses the semantic choices of nature to express his point of life. Autumn and twilight are two metaphors to explain the old age. He is saying that only to prove her that she has to love him more than before because he is dying.

The images of autumn and twilight give to the intelligent reader an idea more romantic and precise to the death that is coming. It is a way to say that he is dying and he wants to love more and more his lady.

In the first octave he presents the problem while in the sestet he does not solve the problem but he gives her a conclusion asking to be loved.