Sonnet 73 Analysis

Sonnet 73 Analysis
In "Sonnet 73", the speaker uses a series of metaphors to characterize what he perceives to be the nature of his old age. This poem is not simply a procession of interchangeable metaphors; it is the story of the speaker slowly coming to grips with the finality of his age and his impermanence in time.
In the first quatrain, the speaker contrasts his age is like a "time of year,": late autumn, when the "yellow leaves" have almost completely fallen from the trees and the boughs "shake against the cold." Those metaphors clearly indicate that winter, which usually symbolizes the loneliness and desolation, is coming. Here the reader would easily observe the similarity between the season and the speaker’s age. Since winter is usually considered the end of a season, it also implies that the speaker is aging gradually, and he may die very soon.
Moreover, the speaker compares his age to the late twilight, "As after sunset fadeth in the west," and the remaining light is s...