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Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold by William Shakespeare

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Shakespeare's speaker tells the one he loves: look at me and you'll notice I'm aging and running out of time.

Poet
William Shakespeare
Composed
1609 · Renaissance
Form
sonnet
Core theme
Love
The PoemFull text

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

William Shakespeare, 1609

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed, whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

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§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

Shakespeare's speaker tells the one he loves: look at me and you'll notice I'm aging and running out of time. He uses three images — autumn, twilight, and a dying fire — to illustrate how his life is coming to an end. The poem concludes with a twist: realizing that someone won't be here forever actually deepens your love for them, rather than diminishing it.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

    Editor's note

    The first quatrain presents a single extended metaphor: the speaker embodies autumn. The hesitant wording "or none, or few" reflects how leaves cling to a tree — sparse, unpredictable, and nearly gone. The phrase "bare ruin'd choirs" creates a powerful image, as the empty branches resemble the roofless choir lofts of churches that were destroyed during the Reformation, once filled with the sound of singing. The birds that "late" (recently) sang in those spaces symbolize the speaker's own youth and vitality, which have now faded away.

  2. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day / As after sunset fadeth in the west;

    Editor's note

    The second quatrain moves from talking about the year to focusing on the day. Twilight is that short moment after the sun has set — the speaker has moved beyond sunset. The "black night," referred to as "Death's second self," sneaks in to snuff out even the dimmest light. Sleep acts as a practice run for death, and the phrase "seals up all in rest" carries a sense of finality that feels more like slamming a coffin lid than settling down on a pillow.

  3. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, / That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

    Editor's note

    The third quatrain narrows its focus even more — from a season, to a day, to the final flickers of a single fire. The fire lies on the ashes of its own past, a quietly devastating thought: the same fuel that kept the flame alive is now what extinguishes it. "Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by" highlights the harsh irony of aging — life itself is what drains you.

  4. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

    Editor's note

    The closing couplet introduces the turn. Shakespeare doesn't seek pity or reassurance — he offers a straightforward observation: you witness all of this, and it strengthens your love instead of lessening it. The word "leave" carries a deliberate ambiguity. It might suggest that the beloved will outlast the speaker, losing him to death, or it could imply that the speaker will depart from the beloved upon his death. In either case, the ticking clock intensifies the love.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone is calm and unwavering—melancholic without any self-pity. Shakespeare isn't seeking sympathy or expressing anger about aging; he's merely presenting the facts and allowing them to resonate. There's a tranquility to the poem, reminiscent of sitting by a fire that's almost extinguished. The final couplet raises the mood just a bit, not to joy but to a kind of honest tenderness.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Autumn / yellow leaves
The season of dying-back symbolizes the speaker's old age. The hesitant phrasing — "yellow leaves, or none, or few" — gives the image a sense of true fragility instead of just being decorative.
Bare ruin'd choirs
Empty tree branches look like the roofless choir sections of long-gone English monasteries. They embody a double loss: the absence of birdsong (youth) and the disappearance of a religious and cultural world that Shakespeare's audience would have known well.
Twilight
The fading light after sunset symbolizes the final stage of life—not the sudden moment of death, but the gradual dimming that comes before it.
Black night / Death's second self
Sleep is depicted as a twin of death. It "seals up" everything, hinting at both a state of rest and an irreversible ending.
The dying fire
The most intimate of the three images. The fire, devouring itself in its own ashes, illustrates the paradox of aging: the very life force that once animated the speaker is the same force that has ultimately reduced him to ash.
Ashes
The remnants of the speaker's youth — both the physical fuel that the fire has consumed and a representation of all that is lost and irretrievable.

§06Form & structure

Form & structure

Form
sonnet
Meter
iambic pentameter
Rhyme
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

§07Historical context

Historical context

Shakespeare wrote his 154 sonnets over about ten years, with most experts suggesting that Sonnet 73 was composed in the 1590s; they were published together in 1609. The sequence addresses two figures — a young man known as the "Fair Youth" and a "Dark Lady" — but Sonnet 73 is directed at the Fair Youth, a younger person whose love the aging speaker cherishes yet feels unworthy of. Shakespeare was in his thirties when he likely wrote this, which was considered middle age during the Elizabethan era. The phrase "bare ruin'd choirs" carries a significant historical weight: Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1541 left many abbeys without roofs and silent across England, serving as a vivid reminder of cultural loss that any Elizabethan reader would have recognized instantly.

§08FAQ

Questions readers ask

What is Sonnet 73 mainly about?

It's about aging and facing death. The speaker employs three extended metaphors—autumn, twilight, and a dying fire—to convey to the beloved that his life is drawing to a close. He then suggests that this realization actually strengthens their love, rather than diminishes it.

Who is the speaker talking to?

The poem speaks to the "Fair Youth," a younger figure present in Shakespeare's sonnet sequence. While we can't say for sure who this individual was, scholars have suggested several possibilities. What’s important in the poem is that this person loves the speaker and will continue to live on after him.

What does 'bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang' mean?

"Choirs" in this context means the choir loft—the area of a church where singers used to perform. Shakespeare is likening the bare branches of winter to the roofless, decayed choir areas of English monasteries that were torn down during the Reformation. The birds that once sang in those branches symbolize the music (and youth) that used to fill those now-quiet spaces.

What does 'Death's second self' mean?

It refers to sleep. In Shakespeare's era, many believed that sleep resembled a mini-death, as both involve a loss of consciousness and a surrender of control. By referring to night as "Death's second self," Shakespeare suggests that going to sleep each night serves as a practice run for death.

What is the meaning of 'Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by'?

A fire relies on wood for fuel, but as it burns, it transforms that wood into ash — and eventually, the ash chokes the flame. The speaker relates this to his own life: the energy and experiences of living have drained him. Life feeds you while also depleting you.

Why does seeing the speaker's age make the beloved's love stronger?

Shakespeare's logic in the couplet is that when something is scarce, it becomes more valuable. Knowing that something — or someone — won't be around for long makes you pay closer attention and cherish it more. The intensity of the beloved's love increases because time is limited.

What is the structure of Sonnet 73 and how does it work?

It's a Shakespearean sonnet, consisting of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each quatrain explores a different metaphor for aging — the year, the day, the fire — getting progressively more intimate and intense with each one. The couplet then takes a step back to reflect on the emotional insights gathered from all three metaphors.

Is the poem sad or hopeful?

Both, really. The three central images evoke a deep sense of mourning — autumn leaving trees bare, light dimming into darkness, a fire struggling against its own ash. Yet, the couplet refuses to succumb to despair. It discovers something genuine and comforting amid loss: love made more poignant by the awareness that it won't last forever.

Key quotes

Key quotes

“Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”
This is arguably the most celebrated line in the sonnet. Shakespeare compares the speaker's aging body to the bare branches of a tree, but the metaphor deepens further — the boughs become the ruined stone choir lofts of abandoned churches, and the birds that once sang there are both literal birds and the vitality of youth. The richness of this compressed image is what makes it so memorable and quotable.
“Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.”
Here Shakespeare personifies night as a twin of Death, reinforcing the sonnet's central theme of mortality. The phrase 'seals up all in rest' suggests finality and closure, making night feel like a rehearsal for death — a bold escalation from the gentle twilight image in the lines just before it.
“Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.”
This paradox — that the fire is destroyed by the very ashes (fuel) that once fed it — is the intellectual climax of the three extended metaphors. It applies to human life too: the body that sustains us in youth becomes the thing that wears us down in age, making it one of the poem's sharpest and most thought-provoking lines.
“This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.”
The closing couplet delivers the poem's surprising turn (or *volta*): instead of ending in despair, Shakespeare argues that awareness of mortality *intensifies* love. The word 'must leave' is deliberately ambiguous — it is unclear whether it is the speaker or the beloved who will be lost — drawing the reader into the poem's emotional stakes right at the final moment.

Citation

Cite this poem

MLA

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold." 1609. Storgy, https://storgy.com/poems/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold-william-shakespeare/.

APA

Shakespeare, W. (1609). Sonnet 73: that time of year thou mayst in me behold. Storgy. https://storgy.com/poems/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold-william-shakespeare/

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In 'Sonnet 73,' Shakespeare uses a sequence of three contracting metaphors — a dying year, a fading day, a smothering fire — to argue that the speaker's acute awareness of his own mortality does not drive the beloved away but instead …

  • Row B — Evidence + Commentary4 pts
  • Row C — Sophistication1 pt
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