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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.
In me thou seest 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.
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
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.


Shakespeare’s 73 sonnet is broken up in 3 quatrains and a couplet. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. (Wikipedia) In sonnet 73 it is in an abab/cdcd/efef/gg scheme. He also uses 5 foot lines, that is to say, 10 syllables per line. This is a good method when writing poetry. It makes it easier to read understand. When the words rhyme, it has a nice flow. After you break down the poem in this way, a person can start the analyzing process. It is much easier to understand what the narrator is trying to say when you look at it quatrain by quatrain.
In the first quatrain the speaker is telling someone that aging is like the seasons.
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
The yellow leaves or none or few in the line can mean its autumn the end of the year, the end of a life, where not much is left. The shaking of the boughs can be the rattling of the old person frail bones. In the second quatrain age is like late twilight, death.
In me thou seest 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.
Night and darkness is always linked with death. We end the day with darkness. When we die, or when the end of something comes it ends in darkness. Deaths second self that seals up all IN REST. At night we sleep, we are in slumber until the morning. In the third quatrain, the speaker compares himself to fire, or at least what’s left of it.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by
The speaker is saying the he was a glowing fire, and a way a fire does out is when the debris become ashes’s and stop all oxygen from coming in. Consumed with what it’s nourished by. Junk food is not good for us, yet everyone eats it. We become diabetics, obese, and malnourished. It is our end, consumed by what we nourished ourselves with. In the couplet, the speaker tells the reader/listener that he will no longer be here on this earth and that one day neither will the reader. It’s as if he is warning him not to take life for granted. To love and to live.