What Is The Theme Of Sonnet 73

Throughout William Shakespeare 's Sonnet 73, there is a consistent theme. The theme is of impending death and the nature that Shakespeare is aging. In the poem, it seems that he is talking to a younger man and explaining what it is like to grow old. It also seems that he is trying desperately to hang on to his youth. He uses different metaphors throughout the sonnet to relate to the way he is aging and moving fiercely towards death. The different ways he describes the way he is aging and the death that is coming is the way he describes the autumn season, the way he describes the late twilight and Death 's Second Self, and the way he compares his youth to the dying embers of a fire.
In the first quatrain of the Sonnet, Shakespeare likens his aging to the season of Autumn. "When yellow leaves , or none, or few do hang upon those boughs which shake against the cold, bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang" (line 2-4). He is saying that he does not know how many leaves have fallen from the tree, just like he does

This is where one can tell that he is trying desperately to hang on to his youth. When he is talking to the younger man, he really wants him to understand in this part what it feels like to grow old. He says that even though he probably sees a glowing fire in Shakespeare, it is really just the ashes of his youth. "In me thou seest the flowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie" (line 9-10). He then goes on to tell the young man that "as the deathbed, where on it must expire" (line 11). Shakespeare is not only fearing his death but also thinks that he will die soon. The reader can also get the feeling that Shakespeare is very much jealous of this younger man and all his youthfulness. Shakespeare longs for that but knows he cannot have it because he has grown old. He feels like his youth is dying out just like the embers of a