Sunday, November 3, 2013

An Awesome Analysis of Sonnet LXXIII

Several friends have asked me to show them Shakespeare's sonnet 73 because they do not have access to it.  Well, that is strange; I was given to understand that every home should bear a copy of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, a Bible, and all of the Peanuts cartoons where Snoopy imagines his dogself to be the Red Baron flying his Sopwith Camel. Well, I am flattered that I have been asked, for the sonnet and so here it is: 
Sonnet 73
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 seest 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
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.  
   This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
It would not, nor should not, take much trouble to reach an understanding of what theme this sonnet is about.  It's about the loss of one's youth and life, like a burning fire, eventually is ravished by old age. I am certainly not claiming that this is the only interpretation of this magnificent poetry. There are as many explanations as there are scholars to analyze it. But they are all wrong, and I am right.
In the first quatrain (four lines) the poet reminds the loved one that he is in the "winter" of his life when the "yellow leaves" have fallen.  In the second quatrain the poet states that he is in the "twilight of life--like a sunset which is gone by "black night".  (Aw come on--you can figure out what black night is all about) The final quatrain claims that his life is now in the embers of a fire and will soon be consumed by the ashes.  The last couplet reminds the lover to see and understand the poet's closeness to "black night" and so must strengthen the bonds of love before his coming death. I will tell you that this is a simplistic analysis; I have much more to say about it than this, but I am too busy trying to develop an entertaining musical, and an entertaining interpretation of the sonnet must wait. 

3 comments:

  1. ruth.grimsley@virgin.netNovember 3, 2013 at 8:53 PM

    Thank you for setting out the sonnet and the first instalment of your thoughts on it: I'm looking forward to the second, when you're less busy with your musical! However, as far as I can see, the sonnet is one of the least obscure, one of the most easily accessible of the Sonnets. The only aspect of the matter that does puzzle me is why, even if someone doesn't have a copy of Shakespeare in his or her possession, s/he can't Google Sonnet 73. Most poetry is out there on the Net! Much love, Cuzzin Ruth

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  2. While on Shakespeare I am reading The Tudors by Peter Ackroyd- A funny saying, the context of Elizabeth being chosen successor.." A Salmon is better then 1000 frogs"...

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  3. Happy veterans Day!!!!! Timmy #15

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