Shakespeare Sonnet 73

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Sonnet 73 Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is a great example of how imagery and figurative language can be used in one overall theme of the stages of old age up until death. He uses metaphors that have a gloomy tone to symbolize a death approaching of the narrator. This sonnet has three quatrains, which focus on the coming of age and negative aspects of death forthcoming. However, like all couplets, the tone of the narrator changes; the focus switches from negative to positive. The couplet focuses on appreciating the love in life, especially during the time of death. This is a key part of sonnet 73. Shakespeare describes of how much time has gone by, giving different settings of time, places, and detailed imagery of metaphors in three quatrains that relate to becoming of age, dying and being loved. In the first quatrain, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold/ When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang” (Lines 1-2). Shakespeare seems to be describing the season of Fall. The season of what many describe as a season between summer and winter, coming from the summer months of hot, and sunny to weather with fresh green cut grass to a season coming to a beginning of winter. When the leaves start to turn colors and fall, this leaves trees bare and looking at the sign of death as the cold will come barreling in with snow. Using fall as a setting presents how in old age, we start losing our “young” senses of feeling and actions, such as vigorous activities like running to our bodies starting to weaken, where some start to develop arthritis or become immobile due to old age. The metaphor used in those two lines, helps set the timeline and setting of how fall (old age) is the preparation of winter meaning death. Shakespeare also compares the narrator’s aging to the changing tree. As people get older, they begin to lose hair; in this metaphor, Shakespeare is comparing a
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