Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet LXXIII explained
The speaker reflects on his own aging and mortality, using metaphors of autumn, twilight, and dying embers to convey the approach of death.
What happens
The speaker reflects on his own aging and mortality, using metaphors of autumn, twilight, and dying embers to convey the approach of death. He concludes that this awareness intensifies the beloved's love, as it is directed toward something soon to be lost.
Themes in this chapter
Time and Mortality
The entire sonnet is a meditation on the speaker's aging and approaching death, depicted through seasonal, daily, and fire-related metaphors.
Love and Desire
The beloved's love is intensified by the awareness of mortality, suggesting a deep connection between love and the transience of life.
Characters to notice
- Youth
The beloved who perceives the speaker's decline and whose love is strengthened by the awareness of impending loss.
- Time
Implied as the force behind the seasonal decay, fading light, and consuming fire that mark the speaker's mortality.
- Death
Referenced as 'Death's second self' (sleep) and the inevitable end that seals all in rest.
Key passages
“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.”
You can see in me the autumn season, with only a few yellow leaves left on the branches that tremble in the cold, like empty church choirs where birds once sang.
The speaker compares his aging self to late autumn, emphasizing decay and loss.
“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.”
You see in me the fading light of dusk, which is soon swallowed by black night—the image of death that brings all to rest.
The metaphor shifts from seasonal to daily decay, equating night with death.
“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 Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.”
You see in me the last embers of a fire lying on the ashes of its youth, like a deathbed where it must die, consumed by the very fuel that once fed it.
The fire metaphor suggests life is sustained by what ultimately destroys it.
“This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
You perceive all this, and it makes your love stronger, to love deeply what you will soon have to leave.
The awareness of mortality deepens the beloved's affection.