However, Sonnet 73 contains many of the themes common throughout the entire body of sonnets, including the ravages of time on one's physical well-being and the mental anguish associated with moving further from youth and closer to death. Sonnets 71-74 are typically analyzed as a group, linked by the poet's thoughts of his own mortality. Is the poet saying that the young man now understands that he will lose his own youth and passion, after listening to the lamentations in the three preceding quatrains? Or is the poet saying that the young man now is aware of the poet's imminent demise, and this knowledge makes the young man's love for the poet stronger because he might soon lose him? What must the young man give up before long - his youth or his friend? For more on this dilemma please see the commentary below. To love that well (12): The meaning of this phrase and of the concluding couplet has caused much debate. This (14): i.e., the demise of the poet's youth and passion. In me thou see'st.was nourish'd by (9-12): The following is a brilliant paraphrase by early 20th-century scholar Kellner: "As the fire goes out when the wood which has been feeding it is consumed, so is life extinguished when the strength of youth is past." (Quoted in Rollins, p. 'black night' or 'sleep.' Macbeth refers to sleep as "The death of each day's life" (2.2.49). As 'black night' closes in around the remaining light of the day, so too does death close in around the poet.ĭeath's second self (8): i.e. 148).īlack night (7): a metaphor for death itself. When the roof of the one is shattered, and the boughs of the other leafless, the comparison becomes more solemn and picturesque" (Quoted in Smith, p. The resemblance between the vaulting of a Gothic isle and an avenue of trees whose upper branches meet and form an arch overhead, is too striking not to be acknowledged. Some editors, however, choose to insert 'like' into the opening of line 4, thus changing the passage to mean 'the boughs of the yellow leaves shake against the cold like the jagged arches of the choir stand exposed to the cold.' Noted 18th-century scholar George Steevens commented that this image "was probably suggested to Shakespeare by our desolated monasteries. Some argue that lines 3 and 4 should be read without pause - the 'yellow leaves' shake against the 'cold/Bare ruin'd choirs.' If we assume the adjective 'cold' modifies 'Bare ruin'd choirs', then the image becomes more concrete - those boughs are sweeping against the ruins of the church. The choirs formerly rang with the sounds of 'sweet birds'. (2): compare Macbeth (5.3.23) "my way of life/is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf."īare ruin'd choirs (4): a reference to the remains of a church or, more specifically, a chancel, stripped of its roof and exposed to the elements. Notes that time of year (1): i.e., being late autumn or early winter. To love that well which thou must leave ere long.Ĭausing you to love that which you must give up before long. This you sense, and it makes your love more determined This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, In me thou see'st the glowing of such fireĪs on the death bed where it must finally expire,Ĭonsum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. The image of death that envelops all in rest. Which is soon extinguished by black night,ĭeath's second self, that seals up all in rest. Which by and by black night doth take away, In me you can see only the dim light that remains In me thou seest the twilight of such day On the branches, shaking against the cold,īare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.īare ruins of church choirs where lately the sweet birds sang. Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, When a few yellow leaves or none at all hang When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang That time of year thou mayst in me behold Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold
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