Sonnet 73

A detailed Summary of Sonnet 73

Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold

This sonnet by William Shakespeare can be regarded as a quite regular representation of what is called a "Shakespearean sonnet". Not only that it is written by him, but as one will see the structure and the theme are really close to what can be found in other typical Shakespearean sonnets.

Talking about the form, it must be mentioned that the poem is divided into an octave consisting of two quartets and a sestet consisting of two tercets. The quartets are indicated by full stops whereas the existance of the tercets is not supported by punctuation marks. Nevertheless one can assume that there actually are two tercets although in this case it is not of any importance with regard to the content. The heroic couplet .which is often hinted at by a caesura introduced by a full stop, is again not set apart from the rest of the text by a punctuation mark, but the content gives evidence to the fact that the last two verses do function as a heroic couplet (the message is formulated in this couplet). The rhyme scheme of the poem is definetely regular as you see cross rhymes throughout the first twelve verses and a pair rhyme in the heroic couplet (ababcdcdefefgg). Turning to the

In the first stanza (the first quartet), the speaker compares himself to a season, which is not given by name. In lines two to four, the reader comes to know that it must be the autumn season that is described. The image presented is an abondonned cold place where no living creatures, neither human beings nor animals, remain but all have left. So the end of the year serves as a symbol for the forthcoming "death" of the year. This has to be seen as an allusion to humans` mortality.

So to sum up what has been said about the form so far, we can say that this sonnet, the few mentioned irregularities excluded, is very close to an ideal Shakespearean sonnet, especially with regard to matters like rhyme scheme or rythm.

Similar things could be said about the theme of the poem: as in many other sonnets by Shakespeare the general theme could simply be called "real love". Better to say, the topic is the transitoriness that accompanies this "real love" and how a lover should handle this fact.

To put it in a nut shell, the speaker states a clear warning which implies not only not to forget about mortality but to treat the person you love respectfully with regard to the transitoriness both of life an

Some common words found in the essay are:
William Shakespeare, heroic couplet, Mayest Behold, , speaker situation, death inevitable, death relevant, real love, forthcoming death, seen allusion, exist forever, shakespearean sonnet, rhyme scheme,

Approximate Word count = 809
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Sonnet 73

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