sonnet 73

Melissa Waugh

Professor Hartstien

English 250

24 April 2008

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73: An Examination and Explication

Shakespeare’s sonnet seventy-three appears to be a beautiful poem but once the reader gets down to the nitty-gritty it is one of lost youth, sorrow, and death. The poem is presented in grim twists and turns. “Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest,” (8). Line eleven refers to the expiration of youth.  Depending upon the time and circumstances every reader interprets poetry differently. Bernhard Frank sees the sonnet as being divided up into three parts, John Prince examines the sonnet in the context of The Tempest, and Stephen Booth studies the grammar and motion of the mind when reading the poem. Personally I perceive poetry to be an art, something to examine, pick-apart, and understand, but never underestimate the beauty of a pieces dressed-up language. Sonnet seventy-three presents itself with painted-language which could deceive the average reader into accepting that the poem is about seasons and lost love; or is this deception? Does the reader not own the deed to his or her own opinion? What makes an opinion valid? If one is knowledgeable of the sonnet and can take the reader back to the poem and show others by using example lines for validation then an opinion in literature is legitimate.
However genuine his opinion is Frank sees sonnet seventy-three as cliché even for Shakespeare’s time. There are two lines that Frank sees as original, “When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang/Upon those boughs which shake against the cold” (2-3).  He divides the poem into seasonal change, cycle of day, and burning out (Frank). Frank speaks of the sun as moving away and personifying hopelessness but it will move closer again as the season’s progress; however the burning tree will turn to ashes and never grow again. He also sees the sonnet as three quatrains as spring, summer, fall, winter; morning, noon, evening, night; and tree, log, ember, ashes. When dividing the poem up in such a way it helps to make more sense because it is human nature to pick things apart and put items into categories to make more sense.
On the other hand Prince scrutinizes the poem under the light of The Tempest. Many sonnets were taken out of the play and sonnet seventy-three replaced them to suit it to a modern audience. According to Prince it was placed into the play to remind Prospero of the plot against his life and Prince goes on to explain that this is one of Shakespeare’s best sonnets because of the ability to interpret it in multiple ways. He suggests that the Indiana Repertory Theatre believes the theme of the poem to be the “mortality” of the speaker or the poet. The poem is placed so the audience can tell that Prospero is speaking to his daughter Miranda and by the end of the poem he is speaking to himself of his own imminent death. “An alternate reading of the sonnet,” states Prince helped the audience see that Prospero changed from a self-centered character to one whom is selfless. Upon construing the poem in such a way Prince perceives the sonnets theme to be about the passing of youth. “I also believe that the topic of the sonnet shifts in the couplet from the speaker’s life, to the addressee’s life” (Prince). He also believes that the “that” in the last line refers to Miranda’s youth when placed in The Tempest and when read alone refers to the listener.
In contrast to Frank and Prince, Booth observes thought and grammar in sonnet seventy-three. “A poem is an experience in time,” (118) explains Booth and from there goes on to inform the reader of the idea of shifting the context in sonnet seventy-three. Booth believes that the mind of the reader is continually working to decipher the meaning of the poem. “The shift from one sound pattern to another within the first line of the same poem,” (120 Booth)  and goes on to explain the union of the first line into the second line  Booth also believes that the sonnet is very demanding of the readers intellectual energy. He also believes that grammar dominates and that the poem is what is most important and not the speaker. Booth continues to explore the line “When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang” (2) He says that the line does not follow nature; there should be yellow leaves first, then few, then none. This causes the reader to reverse the order and form a more vivid picture. Booth believes the order of the line also causes the reader to see the poem differently because the reader has to picture some trees full of yellow leaves, some with none, and some with a few. Booth describes yellow leaves as an adjective-noun combination; none is a pronoun and replaces leaves. Booth judges that line two activates the readers mind.
Distinctions of all three interpretations such as the division of the quatrains, placing the poem in The Tempest, and the observation of thought in seventy-three are all opinions that I can agree with. When reading the poem I was able to make the distinctions of the seasons, time of day, and the dying of the tree which Frank speaks of. I also consent to the use of the sonnet in The Tempest for a modern audience and the way it is incorporated to ensure the audience that Prospero and Miranda make proper communication. I also like how Booth discusses the workings of the mind while reading the poem. When I first read the poem I remember understanding it had to do with lost youth, but mostly I did not get it until I read it a second time. The fact that the poem moves toward winter, death, and ashes makes it not only grim but real to the human mind; we can see and understand all three. Shakespeare is trying to bottle up the carpe diem concept as well, with the last two lines, “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,/To love that well, which thou must leave ere long” (13-14). Those two lines make me think that the speaker is telling somebody else, perhaps even the reader, to love the speaker now because soon he or she will be gone.
Frank separates the sonnet into three parts; Prince’s examines it in the context of The Tempest, and Booth’s view of syntax and thought would all make for one good opinion. All three interpreters have their own point of view. Frank inspects the sonnet in and of itself. Prince looks through the play The Tempest to gain an understanding of the poem. Then Booth takes into consideration the grammar and the feelings of the reader. I believe the feelings of the reader and the way the sonnet is read is the most important. Poetry is art and art is feeling and feeling is emotion, and emotion is life. We make a living by exchanging green paper with one another, but we thrive on art, past and present.













Works Cited
Bernard, Frank. “Shakespeare’s SONNET 73. “Explicator MasterFILE Premier. Academic
Search Premier. EBSCOhost. Drain-Jordan Library, West Virginia State University 27 March 2008
Booth, Stephen. An Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnets. New Haven Conn: New Haven and London
          Yale University, 1894.
Prince, John. “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73.” Explicator Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost.
Drain-Jordan Library, West Virginia State University 27 March 2008.