Figurative Language In Shakespeare's Sonnet 73

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Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 uses figurative language, specifically metaphors, to express the individual sentiments and experience of the speaker about the end of his life. The poem is quite individualistic, not describing death in general, but describing the specific journey of the speaker. The speaker is not just describing death as an eventual end, but as a very real and very near occurrence. There are three metaphors used in the poem, one metaphor per quatrain. Each metaphor describes a particular part of the speaker’s nearing death. Therefore, there are similarities as far as tone and overall theme of the poem, but each metaphor is distinct in which aspect of death being described.
The poem, not surprisingly, takes the Shakespearean form (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG) just as Shakespeare’s other sonnets. The first quatrain uses the metaphor of a late autumn or early winter day. Most likely it is late autumn, as the trees are said to have very few …show more content…

The idea is that one is able to love and appreciate something far more when there is an eminent threat of loss.
It is interesting to note that, in each metaphor, the death is seen as being within him rather than a part of him. With the beginning of each metaphor, the speaker says his beloved can see the winter day within him, the twilight within him, and the embers of the fire within him. This speaks to death as a separate entity that enters a human body and takes life from within.
In conclusion, figurative language works to produce the meaning of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 by vividly describing the individual experience of nearing death for the speaker. Three metaphors, representing similar but slightly different aspects to the process of death, reveal the bleakness of old age, the gradual process of aging, and the finality of death as a

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