Sonnet 73

Along with theme as a significant point, imagery is what paints a picture of the onset of aging and death. The theme was well represented to make the sonnets meaning of aging and death the topic of this piece. Shakespeare writes about yellow leaves clinging on to the trees and birds that use to sing on the branches in the summer time. Shakespeare compares the love between the two people as a log burning, as the fire is burning the log; the log becomes smaller consequentially resulting in the fire to dye out. His creative words tell a story all by itself with the use of metaphors, from the words describing the subjects’ youth to the ashes of his deathbed. This sonnet can be made into one of tShakespeare’s famous plays but he has isolated it to be fifteen lines, and very effective due to the theme, imagery, and wordplay that is expressed and displayed throughout the sonnet. Although the description of the birds singing on the branches is that of the summer time, in contrast, the branches are bare in the autumn; the picture depicts the subject in his youthful years. Imagery was expressed to represent the sonnet successfully. The wordplay was creatively sited to represent something similar to its meaning. Shakespeare also suggests that the person is nearing the end of his life when such fire is glowing.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s sonnet seventy-three has accomplished the task of letting the readers know that this is about death and aging.

Shakespeare sonnets use a variety of words to manipulate the actual meaning of sentences. Shakespeare’s interpretation from the quote “…seals up all in rest” gives a couple of different images.