Sonnet LXXIII
Considering the title the reader understands that the sonnet is part of a collection, precisely it is part of the poems dedicated to the Fair Youth.
Considering the layout the reader notices that the sonnet follows the Elizabethan model of sonnets. It is composed by three quatrains and a rhyming couplet: in the quatrains the poet presents a problem and in the rhyming couplet he presents a possible solution.
The rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF and GG; rhymes tie the words together, and addunity and make the sonnet compact.
The central theme of the sonnet is the growing old of the speaking voice, who uses an extend metaphor to speak about the situatiom of his living.
In the first quatrain he compares himself to autumn and in the second quatrain he compares himself to the sunset.
Thus, the poet compares his old age to something that is part of the semantical field of nature (the autumn).
In the rhyming couplet the poet says that, even if he is growing old, the Fair Youth loves him however. The message that the poet wants to highlight is that people must appreciate what they have and enjoy the moment.