EXERCISE
1. Explain how the Sonnet form helps the Sonneteer to expand the theme in Sonnet 73.
👉The Sonnet form, with its structure of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, allows the poet to develop the theme of aging and mortality in a progressive manner. Each quatrain presents a different metaphor for the poet’s old age: the first compares it to late autumn, the second to twilight, and the third to a dying fire. This structural progression builds a sense of inevitable decline. However the final couplet focuses on the strong love of the poet.
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Insight Check
1. “When yellow leaves, or none or few, do hang”—What do the yellow leaves symbolize in this line?
👉The leaves turn yellow in late autumn before falling down. In this line from Sonnet 73, the poet uses yellow leaves as a symbol of aging and the approach of death.
2. “Which by and by black night doth take away”—What does black night refer to in this poem?
👉The poet presents three imageries of aging in the poem. The second imagery is the twilight of a day with a setting sun, and the black night is a metaphor for death.
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WBCHSE Model Questions
1. Discuss the theme of Sonnet 73.
👉The main theme of Sonnet 73 is senility or aging and its impact on love. The poet uses three metaphors to discuss the theme : a tree in autumn, the twilight of a day, and a dying fire to signify his reaching the final stage of his life, i.e. death. He urges his lover to love him more as he will soon depart from this world.
2. What does the speaker compare himself to in the Sonnet? What significance does it hold?
👉In the Sonnet 73 the speaker compares himself to a tree in autumn, the twilight of a day, and a dying fire.
These metaphors represent the speaker’s old age and the inevitability of death. All these signify that he has reached the final stage of his life and he will die soon.
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Extra Important SAQ
*1. What time of the year is suggested in Sonnet 73 by the poet and why?
👉In Sonnet 73 the poet suggests late autumn, when the leaves of the tree turn yellow before falling down. This symbolizes that the poet has grown old and has reached the end of his life.
2. How is the tree used as a metaphor of aging in Sonnet 73?
👉The tree with its yellow leaves or none at all, is a metaphor for an old person who is approaching the end of his life. The leaves falling off the tree represent the passing of time and the loss of vitality that comes with old age.
*3. What is meant by the expression ‘bare ruined choirs’?
👉The expression ‘bare ruined choirs’ suggests the image of a ruined and abandoned church where the choir no longer exists. This image is indirectly compared to a bare, leafless tree in autumn where birds no longer sing. The expression emphasizes the decay and emptiness associated with old age.
*4. Who is supposedly addressed as ‘thou’ in Sonnet 73?
👉The person addressed as ‘thou’ in the sonnet is the poet’s lover with whom the poet is involved in a love relationship. Probably the Sonnets of Shakespeare are addressed to a person known as “W.H.,” but the identity of this person is not known.
5. What is a Sonnet? What type of Sonnet is Sonnet 73?
👉A Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines with a particular rhyme-scheme.
Sonnet 73 is a Shakespearean or Elizabethan Sonnet, containing three quatrains or four-line stanzas and a concluding couplet.
*6. What is meant by ‘Death’s second self’?
👉In Shakespearean Sonnet 73 by the expression ‘Death’s second self’ the poet means sleep which is brought by the black night for providing rest to all.
7. What is the leafless branch of a tree compared with in Sonnet 73?
👉In Sonnet 73, the leafless branch of a tree in autumn is compared with a ruined and abandoned church. The poet has called it ‘bare ruined choir’ and the choir is a part of church.
8. What three imageries of aging is presented in the poem ‘Sonnet 73’?
👉The three quatrains of Sonnet 73 present three different pictures of aging. In the first, it is the yellow leaves of a bare tree in autumn, in the second it is the twilight of a day while in the third it is a dying fire.
9. When, according to the poet, should one love his or her beloved more?
👉According to the poet, a lover should love their beloved more when he or she realizes that his or her lover will die soon and they will be separated forever.
10. “… do hang upon the boughs, which shakes against the cold,” What does ‘shaking’ suggest?
👉In the above mentioned line the word ‘shaking’ suggests the trembling of the branches due to the cold north wind, which is a metaphor for the poet’s own body trembling with old age.
*11. “In me thou see’st the twilight of such a day” What does the poet mean to say by ‘the twilight of such a day’?
👉In this line, the poet compares his aging with the twilight of a day with the sun setting in the west. The day is nearly spent and the night will come soon. In other words, the life is nearly passed and death will come soon.
*12. “This thou perceiv’st” What is meant by ‘this’ in the line?
👉In this line, “this” refers to the realisation of the poet’s beloved that the poet has reached the fag end of his life and he will die very soon.
*13. What imagery is presented in the first quatrain of Sonnet 73?
👉In the first quatrain of Sonnet 73 the imagery of an autumnal tree is presented. The leaves of that tree have turned yellow and it has been nearly bare or a few leaves are hanging. No birds care to sing in its bare branches.
14. What imagery is presented in the second quatrain of Sonnet 73?
👉In the second quatrain of Sonnet 73 the twilight of day is portrayed. The sunlight is facing in the west and gradually the black night will seal everything in rest.
15. What imagery is presented in the third quatrain of Sonnet 73?
👉In the third quatrain of Sonnet 73, the imagery of a dying fire is presented. The fire is nearly spent and on the ashes is burning dimly before it expires.
16. How does the poet draw a picture of the gradual fading of twilight in Sonnet 73?
👉In the second quatrain of Sonnet 73 the poet has drawn the picture of a fading twilight. The sunlight is gradually fading in the west. Gradually the black night will come and envelope everything in a state of rest.
17. What idea is expressed by the line “Consumed with that which it was nourished by”?
👉The line expresses a popular epigram of Shakespeare’s time. It tells that the force of nature which nourishes us ultimately kills us. The duality of nature in creating, sustaining and destroying is conveyed through this.
*18. “In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire.” What fire is referred to in the line? How does the poet describe the condition of that fire?
👉Here, the fire refers to the life-force or vitality and energy of the speaker.
The poet describes the fire as almost completely consumed, with only a glowing ember remaining, which will soon be extinguished.
*19. What is a choir? How does the poet make a comparison of the choir in Sonnet 73?
👉A choir is a group of singers that performs religious hymns in a church.
In Sonnet 73, the poet compares bare trees in autumn to bare ruined church choirs. The birds that once sang in the trees are now gone, just as choirs would be absent from ruined churches.
20. “As the death-bed, whereon it must expire” What does ‘it’ refer to here? Whose expiry is metaphorically suggested?
👉In this line, ‘it’ refers to a dying fire.
The expiry of the poet himself is metaphorically suggested by this line, as he compares his own life to the fading fire.
21. In Sonnet 73, there are two lines that begin with “In me thou see’st…..” What two different things will expectedly be seen by the poet’s lover?
👉The two different things that the poet’s lover will see are the twilight of a day and a dying fire.
In the second quatrain, the poet’s lover will see the twilight of a day with the setting sun.
In the third quatrain, the poet’s friend will see a dying fire, which represents the end of his life.
