Sonnet 73

original text and modern English, side by side

The aging speaker tells the young man to look at him and see autumn, twilight, and a dying fire — three pictures of approaching death. Knowing the speaker will soon be gone should make the young man's love stronger.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

You can see in me that time of year when yellow leaves — or none, or only a few — hang on branches that shiver in the cold: bare, ruined choir-stalls where sweet birds sang just a little while ago.

In me thou see’st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.

You see in me the twilight of a day fading in the west after sunset, gradually carried off by black night — night, death's double, which seals everything up in rest.

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,

Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.

You see in me the glow of a fire lying on the ashes of its own youth, as if on a deathbed where it must go out, consumed by the very fuel that once fed it.

This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

You see all of this, and it makes your love stronger: it makes you love well what you must give up before long.

Sonnet 73 summary

Famous lines in Sonnet 73, explained

“That time of year thou mayst in me behold” (line 1): The opening line announces the poem's method: instead of saying 'I am getting old,' the speaker tells the young man to look at him and see a season. It launches three linked metaphors — autumn, twilight, a dying fire — each covering a shorter time span, each bringing death closer.
“Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.” (line 4): The most admired image in the sonnet: bare winter branches look like the ruined choir of a wrecked church — the part where singers stood — now empty of its 'sweet birds.' Many readers also hear a reference to England's real ruined monasteries, destroyed a generation before Shakespeare wrote.
“Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.” (line 12): The fire's paradox sums up the whole poem: the fuel that feeds a fire becomes the ashes that smother it, just as living uses life up. Youth does not simply come before old age — it produces it. The line is quoted for anything destroyed by what once sustained it.

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About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “Sonnets, Sonnet 73. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/sonnets/sonnet-73.”

Studying the language itself? Our Shakespearean English course teaches thou/thee, the verbs, and the meter — free through Unit 2. Or try the Shakespearean English translator.