The rising energy and particularization of images of seasons, time, and light complement and contrast the fading body of the speaker in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 . Moving from metaphors of abstract desolation to those of specific vitality and passion within and across each quatrain, Shakespeare's sonnet draws on the paradox of his decaying body housing a still-breathing soul to fashion another parallel metaphor, that of his relationship with his young lover. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first quatrain examines the sonnet's most general metaphorical description of the speaker's aging body, Autumn. Shakespeare does not even specify which season he is referring to in the opening line; it is known only as “That Time of Year You Can See in Me” (1). That “me” comes after “you” and toward the end of the line also signifies the lack of detail the speaker places on himself in the first quatrain. In the second and third quatrains this is reversed, as "In me you see" becomes a more insistent and refined initiation (5, 9). Shakespeare continues the concept of refinement of the subject by first describing the "yellow leaves" of Autumn as simply existing, then admitting that there may be "none", then finally settling on "a few" (2). This stream of definition develops two themes, that Shakespeare believes he still has a few leaves left on his tree of life, and that his lover's poetic eye can amplify the energy of even a bare tree. However, the line's monosyllabic, caesura-laden intonations cannot hide the speaker's automaton-like march towards death. Shakespeare ends his description of the leaves, which "hang / Upon those boughs that tremble against the cold" (2-3). “Hang” is both a technical and metaphorical enjambement that amplifies the speaker's dependence and physical weakness. Yet, even in this comparison of weakness, another transition advances the line from the stale and general to the energetic (albeit an agitated energy) and particular: we move from the immobile and banal leaves to "those branches", distinct, who "shiver against the cold" and do their best to fight death. "Naked and ruined choirs" is an allusion to the monasteries sacked by Henry VIII, and even in this line of mortality passion accumulates; from the first word of “Bare” to the last word “sang,” the speaker's juxtaposition of man-made desolation and the absence of natural vitality paradoxically grows in passion as he laments the dying around him. This propels him into the next quatrain in which, as noted before, he immediately announces himself as the subject, thus further intensifying his and his lover's examination of his vanishing. Indeed, fading is the apparent metaphor used in the second quatrain. Shakespeare moves from the broader season to a more exclusive day, just as he moved from “yellow leaves” to “those branches.” And, again, he alters his definition of the time of day from a rough “twilight of such a day” to the more descriptive and precise phrase, “As after sunset it fades in the west” (5-6). The intensification of poetic energy combined with his physical dullness now takes on a tone of self-contempt; whereas before her lover “can see,” another confused and inaccurate verse, now he definitively “sees” (5). Here the impotence that the speaker feels in his struggle grows. In the first quatrain its branches trembled against the cold choirs; now he lets his light fade: "Which little by little the black night takes away, / Death's second self that seals everything in rest" (7-8). The "soon" implies thepassage of time and his passive role in the dimming of the light, while the strong alliteration of the “b’s” sounds mischievous, as if watching the night rob him of his life from the sidelines. "Death's second self," or sleep, also uses alliteration to great effect, the elusive "s" echoing its poisonous descent into universe.death. Yet his increasing inactivity on the subject continues the paradoxical theme of sinking images with thrilling lyrical energy (“Death's second self sealing all in rest”) certainly has more fire under his words than the original Yellow Leaves. Shakespeare makes this connection more explicit in the next quatrain as he sculpts a final metaphor that explains duality, that of a soul suffocating under the weight of its weak body. Shakespeare takes up the opening “In me you see,” and its repetitiveness now seems more urgent and, pushing the theme, more specific (9). Now her lover's eye is ever more finely tuned, capable of seeing the "shining of such fire" after the lyrics of dark vagueness of the first two quatrains (9). The fire, Shakespeare's metaphor for his soul flickering with its dying embers, nevertheless contains a certain animation amid the expired "ashes" of "his youth" (10). This connects to the previous oppositions of animation suppressed by lethargy: his soul is "consumed by what it fed on", or, in other words, suffocates under the dead weight of his body (12). This expiration quatrain is one of the few that deviates from the rigid iambic meter; “As [weak] the [weak] death- [strong] bed [strong]” follows Pyrrhus with a spondee to emphasize the inevitable fatality, as we are told that the fire “must expire” (10). The crude verbal shifts of “with what was” emphasize the mechanical way in which his once vibrant soul now perishes. The work of declaring the clash of the speaker's tormented soul with his degenerate body is done; in typical Shakespearean sonnet style, he saves the couplet for a conclusion that reflects on both himself and his audience. Shakespeare changes from “you see” to “This you perceive” and the effect continues with the progression of the sharpness of his lover's eye. from perhaps seeing to seeing and observing and now to perception and understanding (13). Is Shakespeare's tone in the couplet grateful? "That makes your love stronger"; that his lover can ignore the corpse in which the speaker's body has disintegrated is a source of awe for him (13). The contradiction in the respective visions of his body, therefore, corresponds to the previous contradictions of living soul and dying body. This strength that his lover offers the speaker gives new meaning to the phrase "Consumed with what he was nourished by." Perhaps Shakespeare fed on his lover's love to the point that his discontent with his aging outweighed the youthful support he received. This, then, adds a twist to the couplet, and the final line, "To love so well, that you must leave ere long" resonates only partly with gratitude, and mostly with self-deprecation and bewilderment at her lover's faithfulness. However, this seems less likely than the conclusion the speaker has come to, that he is lucky to have someone for whom a lover's physical flaws only drive him to fan the flames of his lover's slightly glowing soul. Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, the couplet (except for one word) is composed of monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon words that drive home its point with finality. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Shakespeare's sonnets, taken in sequence, touch on many themes, namely those of Time, Love and Poetry. There., 1993.