SONNET 73 William Shakespeare

Sonnet 73   William Shakespeare

 

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 bird sang

In me thou seest 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 seest the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed where on it must expire

Consum’d with that which it was norishe’d by

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

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

 

Sonnet

 

A sonnet is a 14 line poem, it is written in iambic pentameter. The sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto meaning “sound or song.  There are several types in sonnet but the most common and simplest type is known as Shakespearean sonnet.

 

The characters of Sonnets:

     ·         They consist 14 lines.  It can be divided into four sections as quatrain.

     ·         The sonnet follows rhyme scheme strictly.  It follows ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/DD.

     ·         They are written in iambic pentameter.

     ·         The first three quatrains are written with four lines with alternating rhyme scheme. The  final couplet consists two lines with rhyme.

 Shakespeare’s sonnets are very emotional and mind blowing in their meanings.  Their main theme is “love”.  They reflect on time, transformation and aging, temptation and difference between deal and reality.  Reading and understanding the meaning of sonnet is a great puzzle and could not be resolved.

Sonnet 73 is great work of Shakespeare.  They are addressed to a young man and focuses on old age.

  

Summary

 The poem speaks about the nature of old age.  In the first few lines (first quatrain), he expresses to his love that his age is like a “time of the year” ,in autumn the leaves have fallen from the trees, and weather is cold and the birds are not in their branches as they left them.  In the second quatrain his age is like twilight.  It is like “As after sunset fadeth in the west”, and the smallest light which is there slowly extinguishes in the darkness,   it is like “Death’s second self” likewise in the third quatrain the poet brings out the glowing weakness of the fire which goes like” ashes of his youth” soon the fire extinguishers and turns into ashes from its own burning.  There by the last lines tell the young man to realize the value of time and how he must value his love as the time extinguishes like fire.

 Detail Analysis

 “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 bird sang”

 The poet starts the sonnet by telling his lover about his aging.  He makes a beautiful comparison to his age to the transformation of nature.  He says one day he will be like a autumn leaves which could fall from the trees before the arrival of winter.  He explains that his life too would be fade away without any excitements.  He compares his old age to decay and emptiness as he is going to meet death.  He explains that even he lost his voice and how it going to be dull in future.  All these explanation he gives to make his lover to accept the reality which could not be avoided.

 “In me thou seest 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 these lines the poet brings out the completion of human cycle.  The death has been compared to night.  As the night covers the day, the death swallow a person. Death takes you away from the world.  The poet tells the nature of human life which includes death to his lover so he can be ready to accept the reality. He uses dark images to compare to death and expresses his feeling of loss and emptiness.  Death is a dark force which takes the connection of the beautiful world and breaks the bondage of the affectionate kith and kin and bury us into the dark coffins.

  “In me thou seest the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed where on it must expire

Consum’d with that which it was norishe’d by”

 The poet must be a genius to consider and compare his to life to a burning fire.  For he says he has fueled his life with earthly desires just like adding firewood to the fire to burn without an end.  But the ash is more due to continuous burning and the fire could not be extinguished.  The poet tries to say that he has created enough ash by his desires and now he is old enough to start his final journey, his old age is like the embers and creating ash.  The description shows the poet’s acceptance of reality of life and its transformation which ends in death and decomposition.

 “This thou perceiv’st which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”

 The last couplet turns the mood of the poem from death to love.  The poem gives a universal message to love one another with the awareness of our short journey of life on this earth.  He wants to make his lover to love him more and more as the life is short to enjoy and live.  He ends the poem leaving his beloved with a note.  He leaves his beloved to continue the life and to forget the past and those who were in his past.  For life has to move it could not be extinguished merely for the past.

 

Literary Devices

 Literary devices bring out the feelings and emotions of the writer.  He uses them as tools to convey his messages to the readers.  In this sonnet 73 the poet has used various beautiful literary techniques to bring out the age and time, life and death.

 Alliteration

 Repetition of the same consonant sound.  “S” sound in “Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.”

 Imagery

 The use of imagery is to understand the poet’s feelings and ideas.  Shakes

peare uses lot of visual imagery to show the age and time in sonnet 73.  “Yellow leaves…” is visual imagery. “Sunset fadeth in the west”, “black night doth”, “thou see’st the twilight’ and “boughs which shake against the cold”, Are good examples for visual imagery.

 Symbolism

 It is used to bring out different meaning from the actual literal meaning.  “Black night and “Sunset fadeth” are representing end or death. “Yellow leaves” symbolizes old age. Fire represents desires, lust and temptations.

 

Personification

 Comparing human characters to inanimate objects. 

In the eighth line the poet says about death and its nature.  “Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest as if the death is human to have a self.” As the death can seals us and take us away from our loves one.  “Black night doth take away” is another good example.  “Ashes of his youth doth lie”

 Metaphor

 A comparison of one thing to another to make the description more vivid.

Twilight denotes end of the day and end of the old age.  Black night means death.

“When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang”, glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie.”  All these are metaphors used to show the old age of life.

 Simile

Comparison of two things to bring out more detailed picture of the description.

“Ashes of youth lie as the death bed” the death comes from our decaying youth.  The idea is brought out by using the simile.

 Irony

 Irony gives different meaning to bring out the major theme of the work

“Consum’d with that which it was norish’d by (the force of life, lust and desires of human consume them when they influence life)

 Quatrain

 Four lines in each stanza.  In this sonnet first three are well defined quatrains.

 Couplet

 Last two lines are couplet according to sonnet pattern.  They are usually follow the same meter and rhyme.  The last two lines brings out the central idea of the poem.

 Rhyme scheme

 ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG

 End Rhyme

 The end rhymes give a musical effect to the whole poem.

 Tone

 Giving awareness about our short stay on earth.  Love one another within that short period of time.

 Themes

 Two major themes of love and death are well defined in this sonnet. Love and death.  To bring out the themes the poet has used number of imagery.  The 14 lines give a detail description of the human cycle from youth to old.  The speakers portrays the inevitable nature of life and death. The speaker wants his love to understand and to accept the practical life style and to move on with life without getting into any emotional setbacks.   He asks everyone to share love and affection with our fellowmen as our life on the earth is very short.

 Thus the sonnet 73 represents life and death of human cycle.  The practical life style of human and advices to share love and affection with one another as our journey is very limited. 

 Thank you