Sonnet 73

Sonnet 73 is similar to sonnet 146 as it talks about the age of the speaker. It is very cautionary in tone, as the speaker uses himself as an example of how time fades beauty. In, the first quatrain, the speaker compares himself to barren trees while the second quatrain talks about how the speaker is slowly dying, the light inside of him slowly fading. In the third quatrain, the listener compares himself to the remains of a fire whose ashes are burning out, and the couplet closes the sonnet by saying that over time, one begins to become thankful for what they haven’t yet lost. This sonnet is interesting to me because it combines the speaker’s consciousness about himself aging, along with a direction toward the subject to try and encourage him to have children. By addressing his own sadness about growing old, the speaker encourages the subject that he should appreciate his own youth before it fades.