Analysis of sonnet 73: "That time of year thou mayst in me behold". In this sonnet Shakespeare expresses thoughts of his own mortality and the mental anguish associated with moving further from youth and closer to death. He describes times' destruction of great monuments juxtaposed with the effects of age on human beings. This is a convention seen in many Shakespearean sonnets. Shakespeare speaks to a friend; he speaks with authority and learnedness, which indicates he …showed first 75 words of 590 total…

…showed last 75 words of 590 total…once was. In the final couplet Shakespeare says, 'This thou perceivest which makes thy love more strong to love that well which thou must leave 'ere long'. I feel this means that love must grow stronger in old age as death approaches, Shakespeare is saying, he has made the young man aware of his imminent demise and this knowledge makes the young man's love stronger still as he knows he is to lose the poet.