Sonnet 73

E493808

Sonnet 73 is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, reflecting on aging, mortality, and the deepening of love in the face of time’s decay.

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Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf English sonnet
Shakespearean sonnet
lyric poem
poem
addressedTo a beloved youth (traditional interpretation)
author William Shakespeare NERFINISHED
closingCouplet This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
collectionPosition Sonnet 73 in the 1609 sequence NERFINISHED
countryOfOrigin England
firstLine That time of year thou mayst in me behold
focus speaker's sense of approaching old age
genre love sonnet
hasQuatrain1Image late autumn or early winter
hasQuatrain2Image twilight after sunset
hasQuatrain3Image glowing embers on a dying fire
imagery autumn
bare ruined choirs
dying fire
twilight
interpretation love grows stronger when confronted with the awareness of death
language English
literaryDevice alliteration
anaphora
imagery
metaphor
personification
literaryMovement English Renaissance NERFINISHED
meter iambic pentameter
numberOfLines 14
partOf Quarto of 1609 NERFINISHED
Shakespeare's sonnets NERFINISHED
period Elizabethan era NERFINISHED
rhymeScheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
structure three quatrains and a final couplet
theme acceptance of death
aging
deepening of love in the face of mortality
fear of loss
love
mortality
time
transience of life
tone meditative
melancholic
tender
usesMetaphor burning embers to represent the end of life
fading light to represent nearing death
seasonal decline to represent aging
volta occurs in the final couplet

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Sonnets hasPart Sonnet 73