Shakespeare's Sonnet 73

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1. The sonnets 71 & 73 are called "Mortality Sonnets". Here the poet celebrates the mortal nature of man.

2. Sonnet 73 is about how the patron should remember the ageing poet.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

" 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. "

3. The poet is under the cruel spell of autumn. The image of an autumn day and "yellow leaves" create an impression of nearing death as well as the falling creative abilities of the poet.

4. The line "...shake against the cold" shows the defiance of the poet at the face of death. He is ready to fight back and challenge death. But he realizes that there is no use in that.
Once his songs were like those that the "sweet birds sang", but now it is like "bare ruin'd choirs", meaning that the harmony in his music is lost.

" 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. "

5. Now the patron (referred as "thou") sees in the poet the twilight, that is, the falling light. The image of "sunset fadeth in the west" is symbolic of a farewell.

6. The poet refers to death as the "black night" and sleep as "Death's second self. There is an alarming fear of death arising in the poet.
What he means here is that the remaining light left in the poet will be consumed by death ("black night"). He is even afraid of sleep, which might someday extinguish his life ("seals up").

" 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,
  Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. "

7. We see an image "glowing of such fire" consuming fuel and becoming ashes. The poet's youth was glowing like fire and was fueled by the patron's love ("...that which it was nourish'd by").
But now what the patron sees in him is nothing but ashes. The words "ashes" and "deathbed" and "expire" help in sustaining the existential strain in the poem.

" This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
  To love that well which thou must leave ere long. "

8. The final couplet is a request of the poet to his patron. He says, when the patron realizes the true state of the poet's health and that he will leave this earthly abode before too long, it is time for the patron to start loving him much more stronger than before.


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