The poem “That Time of Year” (sonnet 73) by William Shakespeare indulges the reader to one of the most important and certain themes: old age. The speaker laments and gives his anxieties in regards to old age, a reality that he regards to be certain. The speaker takes the reader through the effects of old age and likens old age to weakness and despair on his part. The speaker also gives the reader advice on the value of youth, and the effects of old age. The speaker takes the reader through the tribulations of old age in three different quatrains that are distinctively brought out through metaphorical phrases. The first part of the poem uses metaphors to describe the winter days by bringing the harsh conditions that come with winter. The second quatrain of the poem takes up the use of twilight, and in a twist, does not indulge into old age, but rather the fading light of youth. In the second part of the poem the speaker is more concerned with how the “black night” takes away the light of day, meaning that his youth has faded away, and old age has taken its course (Shakespeare and Tucker 49). In the third quatrain, the speaker finally acknowledges that he has finally accepted his fate and must resign to believing this fact (Shakespeare and Tucker 35). He reiterates that his youth has been consumed and uses the fire as the imagery and ashes to signify his acceptance of the harsh reality. The final part of the poem ends with the speaker advising for everyone to cherish youth since it is deemed to end and cannot last forever. Old age is a cruel reality for all people and the times for one to finally face old age is sure. Therefore, people should cherish youth for it comes to an end at some point in a person’s life.

The mood of the poem is filled with melancholy and realization that one’s life old age is certain. The speaker characteristically laments of how old age has affected his life, and associates old age with the worst seasons and times in a person’s life. In the first-part, old age is associated with winter, which is the worst part of the season in a year. The speaker associates old age with frailty and weakness in the later parts of one’s life. The melancholic feelings are evident when the speaker associates old age with twilight and sunset, meaning that it is the final chapter in the speaker’s life. The speaker is contemplating the harsh reality that at last, the youth is finally over, and all that is left is old age as he vividly describes in the third quatrain.

The speaker is an old person in his later parts of his life. This has been clear in the whole poem as it has constantly associated the experience with everything that is in its old days and frail in the end. In the poem, the speaker talks about sunset, ashes, and the “bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.” (Shakespeare and Tucker 67). The speaker constantly equates himself to these events and aspects of life, thereby identifying himself with the later and failing parts of life. It is clear from these events and vivid descriptions of the narrator that he is in his old age, and more so due to the way he describes youth and his advice to everyone to love their youth as it will at a point come to an end.

The speaker also uses metaphorical phrases in the poem to bring out the theme of old age. As aforementioned, he relates old age to winter, with its harsh and cruel environment, an objective he achieves through the use of a metaphorical phrase: “upon those boughs which shake against the cold”(Shakespeare 10). The phrase points out the harsh conditions that branches feel during winter (Shakespeare and Tucker 50). He also relates old age to the twilight, and the youth taken away from him by the “black knight.” He also makes use of metaphor to phrase it by asserting that “as after sunset fadeth in the west, which by and by black night doth take away” (Shakespeare and Tucker 67). The metaphors are used by the narrator to compound his feelings on the effects of old age in his life, and how he perceives old age. The narrator finally acknowledges the fact that he is old and accepts the cruel reality of old age in the third part of the poem. The narrator finally reiterates: “that on the ashes of his youth doth lie” (Shakespeare 10). Metaphors are the main form of stylistic feature used in the poem to properly bring out the theme of old age perfectly.

The poem “That time of year” is interesting to read, especially the final part where the narrator offers advice to the readers to love their youth when they have it, because it eventually ends. This part also plays the role of ending the poem perfectly. After the narrator contemplates and bemoans the cruel reality of old age, it is important that the speaker ended with something positive for the readers in the last part of the poem.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The sonnets of William Shakespeare: rearranged and divided into four parts. London, UK: J. R. Smith, 1859. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and T. G. Tucker. The sonnets of Shakespeare. Cambridge, England: University Press, 1994. Print.