Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold
Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold - form Summary
A Volta Drives the Turn
This is a Shakespearean sonnet that uses a compact argumentative arc. The three quatrains present successive images of aging—autumn trees, twilight, and a dying fire—each narrowing the speaker’s likeness to approaching death. The final rhymed couplet then resolves the meditation by claiming awareness of mortality strengthens the beloved’s love. The poem’s sonnet form concentrates contrast and delivers a moral turn in a tight, persuasive closure.
Read Complete AnalysesThat 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 ruined choirs where late the sweet birds 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 whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourished by. This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.