Sonnet Explication

Diep Taryn Diep Mrs. Morris Block B February 18, 2017 Until Death Do Us Part Time is quickly running out, as quickly as sand trickles down from the top half of an hourglass, but somehow, there is still hope. The amount of time remaining is rapidly diminishing, starting at the season of autumn, decreasing down to sunset, and concluding with the end of a bonfire on a cold night. Time passes by at a very fast pace, and as people grow old, they must love while they can before it is too late. Through Sonnet 73 "That time of year thou may'st in me behold", the prominent William Shakespeare expresses the meaning, that time is quickly expiring and people should love while they still have the opportunity, through the sonnet's tone and mood, the elaborate imagery throughout, and the syntax that he utilizes. Firstly, Shakespeare expresses the meaning of the sonnet through the tone and the mood. The tone of this poem is one of desperation because Shakespeare is portraying the impression that the minutes are running out and that the speaker might not have much time left to love their significant other. The mood of the sonnet is frantic and anxious as a cause of the speaker asserting the diminishing of time, from a year, to a night, to the remainder of the life of a dying fire. The manner in which desperation was spreads throughout the sonnet is especially prominent in the three quatrains; however, after the shift, the mood and tone of the concluding couplet is substantially different. In the couplet, the mood and tone alters and becomes less desperate and more understanding and inspiring. The couplet, "This thou perceivest, which

Diep makes thy love more strong, to love...thou must leave ere long." (lines 13-14), states that the speaker's love interest knows that his time is running out, and therefore, that makes their love stronger. This causes the reader of the sonnet to deeply ruminate about how William Shakespeare purposefully sets the structure this way to promote the idea of hope. However, Shakespeare does not only inserts meaning in an abstract viewpoint, but also adds a physical perspective through detailed imagery. In addition, Shakespeare chooses to portray meaning in Sonnet 73 by using very descriptive sensory imagery. The three quatrains of this sonnet clearly depict three vastly different periods of time. In quatrain one, the speaker tells his love interest that he might remind them of the autumn time, at the end of the year, when "leaves have fallen off trees whose boughs shake against the cold winds" (3). In the beginning of the second quatrain, "In me thou see'st the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west," (5-6), the speaker states that the love interest might be reminded of him at twilight, when the sun has already gone down, but there is still a bit of light; the time where the dark night quickly creeps up and engulfs the daytime light. Finally, in the third and final quatrain, the speaker states that one might see him in the glow and warmth of a dying bonfire, "that on the ashes of his youth doth lie" (10), which basically means he can be seen suffocating in the memory of his youth. Standing alone, the quatrains might not make the meaning of the sonnet clear to see, but put together, the quatrains take on a whole different meaning. By understanding the ideas of the different quatrains, the reader can discover that Shakespeare intentionally chooses these three events in this specific order to show the dwindling of time throughout three different factors.

Diep Finally, the last method that William Shakespeare uses to depict the meaning of Sonnet 73 is his use of syntax, or word order. As stated before, the time frames of the three quatrains are continuously narrowing as time quickly passes by, going from the last few months of a year to the last few moments of light during in a day, concluding with the final few moments of light and warmth radiating out of a dying bonfire. However, in line two, "When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang" (2), William Shakespeare purposely structures the phrases in this way to emphasize the aspect of hope. Usually, a person would make a list in a way that goes from most to least, or from least to most. However, the speaker chooses to phrase this line that disrupts the normal patterns, by going from full to none to some because he wants to insert hope in a time of darkness and barrenness. This sonnet also shifts between the third quatrain and the couplet to a more lighthearted tone about how the speaker's significant other's love is extremely strong and how they must love before it is too late, to show hope in the race against the clock. In conclusion, in Sonnet 73 "That time of year thou may'st in me behold" by William Shakespeare is a literary work whose meaning is very sincere and worthwhile. The meaning, that time is quickly running out and that all people must love when they still have the opportunity to do so, is brought into context by the tone and mood, the elaborate sensory imagery, and the syntax in which the author structures the sonnet. Almost all the sand has trickled down from the top of the hourglass, but in the minuscule amount of time that remains, there is still hope, and there is still just enough time to love.