Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Englisches Seminar

Einführung in die englische und amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft

Wintersemester 2001/ 2002

Dozentin: Hilke Kuhlmann

An interpretation of Shakespeare′s sonnet 73

and the

deeper meaning of its metaphors

Christian Dunke

Englisch (HF): 01 FS

Sport (HF): 01 FS

Spanisch(HF): 01 FS

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Form and structure 4

3. Interpretation of sonnet 73 in general 5

4. The Special meaning of the metaphors 7

5. Conclusion 10

6. Bibliography 11

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1. Introduction

Shakespeare, the greatest English poet of all times, has created an unbelievable variety of

works. Included in these works are his 154 sonnets which were written between 1592 and

1598, and later published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a

young male friend with initials W.H. whose identity has not ever been made entirely clear.

His following sonnets refer to an unknown "Dark Woman".

In my partly descriptive and partly argumentative paper I want to write neither about the

English sonnet-form and its origins, the differences to the Italian style, nor about

Shakespeare′s life. On the contrary, I want to go into detail on only sonnet 73. I chose this

sonnet of the young man-friend group because of its theme, which every human being has to

deal with. For these reasons I was interested in interpreting sonnet 73.

In this sonnet Shakespeare advises his young friend to appreciate and even to love the time he

has left in his life, because of the limitation death sets to it. Shakespeare takes on the role of

an advisor, because he is the one who possesses more life experience, and he wants to pass on

the knowledge that he has gained from the experiences in his life. First he compares himself

to a bare tree freezing in the cold, secondly to a day which will be devoured by the dark night,

and finally to a fire going to be extinguished upon its own ashes.

The sonnet provokes many questions:

Did Shakespeare really believe he was going to die soon? Was he actually referring to his

own death? What effect did he want to produce by saying so? Does he consider his situation

equal with the situation of his metaphors which are all placed near death or the end? Or is this

sonnet just advice to his young friend?

I will interpret this sonnet first by presenting an overview on its well-ordered form and

structure, afterwards I will analyse in turn the metaphors to solve the raised questions.

I found many good and apt secondary literary sources about this poem, the most useful books

for my work on this paper proving to be Helen Vendler′s "The Art of Shakespeare′s Sonnets"

and Katharine M. Wilson′s "Shakespeare′s Sugared Sonnets", not necessarily because I

agreed with them on all points, but because their points of view were the most interesting and

profound.

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