Sonnet 73

“In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.”

Translation:

In me, you can see a fire’s glowing remains lying upon the ashes produced by the flame of my youth. The embers lie as though on a deathbed, where they are extinguished by the ashes of that which once fed the flames.

In this section, the speaker compares himself to the glowing embers of a fire. He portrays a powerful image of a fire’s smoldering remains being extinguished by its own ashes. When read correctly, iambic pentameter causes the reader to emphasize key words, making it easier to understand the main point. It also enhances the poem’s beauty by arranging words in such a way that it lends a rhythmic flow to the writing. Also, the wording of poems tend to leave them open to interpretation whereas a paragraph is usually more straightforward.

In this poem, the speaker describes old age using a series of metaphors. In the first quatrain, he speaks of boughs shaking in the wind and the absence of birdsong in order to describe the loneliness associated with old age. Next, he uses light fading into darkness to portray the slow progression from youth to old age. In the third quatrain, he uses the fire metaphor to emphasis the finality of death; once a fire is extinguished by its own ashes, there is nothing left to relight. This section also reemphasizes that he is nearing his own death. In the very end of the poem, he tells someone important to him that through the understanding of these truths, his love for the speaker will grow.

In the critical thinking and writing questions at the end of the poem, it asks what would happen if the three quatrains were in a different order. The order in which the speaker addresses them is significant to understanding the entire poem because it shows a natural progression from the loneliness of old age, to the gradual fading of vitality, to an inevitable death. I personally would not have understood the meaning behind the metaphors if it had not been for the order of this poem. This just goes to show that poetry is highly structured even if at times it appears simple.