Autumn Sonnet

In honor of our fall weather (and because I miss analyzing poetry), I give you a sonnet by Shakespeare:


Sonnet 73

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.
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 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.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

* * *

Arch Words Analysis: The narrator of this poem, an old man addressing a younger person (presumably a lover), uses contrasts—singing birds vs. bare branches, warmth vs. cold, light vs. darkness, fire vs. ashes—to show the difference between youth and old age. The narrator describes himself with images of dwindling heat and color: the leaves are bright yellow, but there are few of them; there is still faint light in the sky, but the sun has already set; some coals still glow, but the fire has almost completely burned itself out. Although the poem starts tentatively—the narrator says “mayst,” which leaves some doubt, and he seems uncertain whether there are “yellow leaves, or none, or few,”—by the end, he says certainly, “This thou perceivest.”

The couplet, though, reverses the direction of the poem with the word “strong.” The person to whom the narrator speaks sees the narrator’s weakness, but this perception transforms the weakness into strength. The signs of the narrator’s dwindling life remind the lover that life and love are fleeting, and cause him or her to value the relationship more. In this poem, human frailty and mortality paradoxically strengthen love.

Photo by RBaez on flickr.com.