Sonnet 73: That Time of Year

About the Author & Poem

William Shakespeare (1564–1616): Widely regarded as the greatest dramatist and poet in the English language. He is the author of iconic plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as a sequence of 154 sonnets.

The Poem: Sonnet 73 is one of Shakespeare's most famous works. It uses powerful metaphors of nature—the changing seasons, the fading day, and a dying fire—to describe the poet’s aging and approaching death. The sonnet concludes that the realization of life’s brevity makes love between friends even stronger and more precious.

II. Comprehension Questions

1. a) Which season is the poet talking about in the first stanza?
Answer: (c) autumn.

1. b) Which words in the stanza support your answer?
Answer: Yellow leaves, none, or few; boughs which shake against the cold.

2. Where does the poet imagine himself to be in the stages of life?
Answer: The poet imagines himself to be in old age, close to his death.

3. a) What are compared to "bare ruin'd choirs?"
Answer: The leafless branches of trees where birds used to sing are compared to bare ruined choirs.

3. b) What does the comparison mean?
Answer: It means that just as a ruined church loses its roof and its music, the aging poet has lost his youth, vitality, and the "song" of his life.

4. What image does the poet use in the second stanza?
Answer: The poet uses the image of the twilight of a day.

5. Where does the poet imagine himself to be in the stages of a day?
Answer: The poet identifies with the evening or twilight, just before the black night takes everything away.

6. What is referred to as "Death's second self?"
Answer: Black night (or sleep) is referred to as Death's second self.

7. Identify the metaphors used to show the approach of death.
Answer: Late autumn, twilight/sunset, and the glowing embers of a dying fire are the metaphors used.

8. What image does he use in the third stanza?
Answer: He uses the image of a glowing fire that is wasting away into ashes.

9. Which stage of fire does the poet identify himself with?
Answer: (d) ash (the final stage where the fire expires).

10. a) What lies on the ashes of its youth?
Answer: The glowing fire (the last of his life's energy) lies on the ashes of his youth.

10. b) What does death-bed mean here?
Answer: The ashes are the death-bed because they are the remains of what once nourished the flame, and where the flame must eventually go out.

11. "This" in the couplet refers to:
Answer: (a) back to the three quatrains (the images of his aging).

12. When does love become more strong?
Answer: Love becomes more strong when one perceives that the person they love is aging and must leave them soon.

13. Identify the poet's stage of life in each image:
Answer:
a. Comparing life to seasons: Autumn.
b. Comparing life to the day: Twilight/Evening.
c. Comparing life to fire: Ashes/Embers.

1. "Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
a. What does this refer to? Answer: (iii) both a crumbling church and trees empty of birds.
b. Why has the "sound" disappeared? Answer: Because the birds have flown away due to the cold of winter and the decay of autumn.
c. Why use the word "late"? Answer: To show that the change happened recently; the birds were singing there not long ago.
d. Why are the branches leafless? Answer: Because it is late autumn/early winter, and the leaves have fallen off.

2. "This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong..."
a) Who is "thou" here? Answer: The poet’s young friend and patron.
b) What makes love more strong? Answer: The awareness that the poet is in the final stage of his life and will soon pass away.
c) Literal meaning of the last line: Answer: To love that person well whom you must lose or leave very shortly.

III. Paragraph Writing

Answer: The three quatrains establish the theme of aging and the inevitable approach of death through metaphors of the seasons, the day, and fire. The couplet serves as a powerful conclusion by shifting the focus from the poet's physical decay to the emotional impact it has on his friend. It explains that because the friend sees the poet's life "consuming" and "expiring," his love becomes deeper and more intense. It reinforces the idea that we value and love most strongly what we know we are about to lose.

Answer: This line contains a double image. First, it presents the literal picture of bare, leafless tree branches in winter, which used to be filled with the songs of birds. Second, it evokes the image of the ruined, roofless choirs of abandoned churches or monasteries where choristers once sang. The poet wants his friend to "behold" both these images to understand the state of his own life: a shell of what it once was, where the music of youth has been replaced by the silence and cold of old age.