The amazing web site of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Commentary. Sonnet 73.
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OMMENTARY
SONNET LXXIII
LXXIII 1. That time of year thou mayst in me behold 2. When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 3. Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 4. Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 5. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day 6. As after sunset fadeth in the west; 7. Which by and by black night doth take away, 8. Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. 9. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, 10. That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 11. As the death-bed, whereon it must expire, 12. Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. 13. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, 14. To love that well, which thou must leave ere long. |
The sonnet is the third in the group of four which reflect on the onset of age. It seems that it is influenced partly by lines from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the translation by William Golding. However the verbal parallels are somewhat sparse. Shakespeare's presentation is much more individualistic and cannot easily be attributed to any one mould or influence. It is worth noting that, if the sonnet were written in 1600, Shakespeare would only have been 36, and it is quite probable that it was written before that date. An age that we would not consider to be the threshold of old age. Of course the group of four sonnets, of which this is the third, begins with a putative skirmish with death and finality, so that it is in a sense merely thematic within that group to discuss the autumn of one's years, which will shortly lead to parting and separation. We can therefore allow that it uses some poetic licence in painting a gloomy portrayal of the withered tree. | |
Nevertheless it is slightly surprising that the statements are so definite and uncompromising. This is how he is now, it is not some prognostication of decay, or a brief glimpse forwards to some imaginary time. The picture is more like that of age on his death-bed, of the autumn tree, of the onset of night, of the actuality of dying. The thought seems closer to the anonymous 16th. century poem As ye came
from the holy land which becomes a lament for love's faithlessness as age comes on. She hath
left me here alone, What's the
cause that she leaves you alone I have loved
her all my youth, Some lines from The Passionate Pilgrim of 1599, which are often attributed to Shakespeare, are also relevant. (See opposite). Perhaps Shakespeare was offering this sonnet as a charm to ward off rejection. Perhaps the rejection was already evident and this is just a historical analysis of what he already knows to be the truth, a deja vu of love's forgetfulness. Or perhaps he genuinely felt that age had stolen a march on him. |
Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasaunce, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare. |
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THE 1609 QUARTO VERSION
Bare rn'wd quiers,where late the ſweet birds ſang. In me thou ſeeſt the twi-light of ſuch day, As after Sun-ſet fadeth in the Weſt, Which by and by blacke night doth take away, Deaths ſecond ſelfe that ſeals vp all in reſt In me thou ſeeſt the glowing of ſuch fire, That on the aſhes of his youth doth lye, As the death bed,whereon it muſt expire, Conſum'd with that which it was nurriſht by. This thou perceu'ſt,which makes thy loue more ſtrong, To loue that well,which thou muſt leaue ere long. |
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1.
That time of year thou mayst in me behold |
1. You may observe in me that time of life which is like the time of year when etc. The word behold, meaning 'to see or to observe', is mostly literary and not often used nowadays. | |
2. When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
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2.
The line, by its pauses, almost re-creates
the blowing away of the last resistant fading leaves by the autumn
wind.
Only a few stalwart ones finally remain. Cf. Coleridge The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can. Christabel. 49-50 There is a suggestion also of the faded, yellowing papers with the poet's lines written on them, as in Sonnet 17: So should my papers, yellow'd with their age. The poet is like a tree with his decaying, worn out verses being dispersed in the wind. |
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3. Upon those boughs which
shake against the cold, |
3.shake against the cold = tremble in anticipation of cold days to come; shiver in the actual cold; shake in the cold blast of the gale. against is used in the sense of 'in anticipation of, in preparation for' in Sonnets 49 and 63. | |
4. Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
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4. The
emendation of Q's rn'wd
quiers to ruined
choirs is generally accepted. 'Choir'
was the spelling adopted from the close of the 17th century. In
Shakespeare's
day it was quyre, quire, or quiere. The
choir is the part
of the church at the top, eastern end, the chancel, where the
choristers
stood and sang. Shakespeare uses the word seven times, only twice with
this
meaning. and I remain unconvinced that the rich stream of suggestions listed by Empson in Seven Types of Ambiguity, (see below), which has led to much debate on this line, is entirely justified. It is a mattter of opinion whether branches of trees look very much like ruined abbeys. Readers must judge the matter for themselves. Other fleeting references in the line may be to quires of paper which contain songs and sonnets. Or to the composer William Byrd, who moved away from London in the 1590's, probably owing to his Catholicism. |
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5. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day |
5. of such day = of such a day of late autumn or winter as I have been describing. Or day could be a synonym for 'light', allowing the meaning to run on to the next line. 'In me you see such a time of life which is like twilight, when the daylight, after sunset, fades away in the West'. | |
6. As after sunset fadeth in the west; | 6. See note above. | |
7. Which by and by black night doth take away,
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7.
Which = the twilight. by and by = fairly rapidly; soon. Cf. Hamlet's response to Polonius - I will come to my mother by and by. Ham.III.2.373. take away = As well as the meaning of 'remove' there is also the implication of doing away with, killing, destroying by underhand means. Thus Macbeth, contemplating the murder of Duncan, fears that Duncan's virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking off. Mac.I.7.19-20. Night kills off the daylight, as a murderer kills his victim. |
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8. Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
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8.
Sleep is often portrayed as a second self
of Death, or Death's brother. Compare: Care Charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born: Samuel Daniel, Sonnets to Delia, liv. (c 1600). But in this sonnet Night takes the place of sleep as the grand slayer. Three images are possibly condensed here. That of sealing a coffin; sealing a letter, or a will, or a sentence of death, (i.e. folding it up and using sealing wax to seal it: envelopes were a later invention); covering over the eyes (seeling), as one did with tamed birds of prey. Similar imagery is used in Macbeth: ..........Come seeling Night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day. Mac.III.2.46-7. But the thought in Mac. is somewhat different, being concerned with Macbeth's determination to ally himself with evil forces in Nature. |
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9. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, | 9. such fire = such as is seen at twilight; such as is described in the next line. | |
10. That on the ashes of
his youth doth lie, |
10. his youth = the fire's youth. The possessive 'its' was not yet in use in Elizabethan England, so we should not assume that the word 'his' adds more to the sense of personification than if it had been 'its youth'. | |
11. As the death-bed,
whereon it must expire, |
11. As the death-bed - the ashes of his youth are as a death-bed; whereon it must expire = on which it, the fire, or the youth, must at last die. | |
12. Consumed with that which it was nourish'd
by.
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12.
Consumed with that = consumed, eaten
away, at the same time as; eaten away by those things (which also
nourish
it). Similar to the line from Sonnet I : Feeds thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel. Life's progress from beginning to end is summed up in one line. |
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13. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
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13. Possibly a wish, rather than a statement of fact. 'When you perceive this, it will strengthen your love'. this presumably refers to the poet's waning life, described in the quatrains. | |
14. To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
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14.
that = that person, spirit, dream
of your imagination, me, the poet. Alternatively - your youth and
freshness
which is doomed to the same fate. well - could include a pun on Will, the poet's name. leave = depart from, abandon; give up. A sidelong glance also at 'to come into leaf'. SB points out that the couplet could have a bawdy interpretation. |
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The fundamental situation, whether it deserves to be
called ambiguous
or not, is that a word or a grammatical structure is effective in
several
ways at once. To take a famous example, there is no pun, double syntax,
or dubiety of feeling in W. Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Ch.I. |
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First line index | Title page and Thorpe's Dedication | Some Introductory Notes to the Sonnets | Sonnets as plain text 1-154 | Text facsimiles | Other related texts of the period |
Picture
Gallery |
Thomas Wyatt Poems | Other Authors | General notes for background details, general policies etc. | Map of the site | Valentine Poems |
London Bridge as it was in Shakespeare's day, circa 1600. | Views of London as it was in 1616. | Views of Cheapside London, from a print of 1639. | The Carrier's Cosmography. A guide to all the Carriers in London. As given by John Taylor in 1637. | Oxquarry Books Ltd | |
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