How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
That time of year thou mayst in me behold, (1)
Shakespeare draws parallels between humans and the natural world from the very beginning of the poem—and, as you can see here, invites us, the readers, to "behold" these connections. Why do you think he insists on these parallels so much? Could it be a way of emphasizing the inevitability of the processes of aging?
Quote #2
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, (2-3)
In these lines, the speaker continues the initial parallel he drew in line 1, comparing himself and his position in life to a tree just before winter. Because everybody in Shakespeare's initial audience would have known what winter feels like (Shakespeare probably wasn't writing with readers from equatorial regions in mind), this parallel between human experience and the natural world would have communicated instantly what the speaker was getting at. All you folks from Maine know what we're talking about.
Quote #3
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. (4)
Something weird is definitely going on here—it's as if the speaker's general metaphor has doubled back on itself. Now, all of a sudden, he is describing nature in human terms, comparing the boughs of the tree to the wooden "choirs" (i.e. choir benches in a church) "where late the sweet birds sang." So which way is it, Mr. Shakespeare-man: are humans like nature, or is nature like humans? Why do you think the poet would want to mix things up like this? Could he just be showing off?
Quote #4
In me thou seest the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west, (5-6)
These lines take us back to the same sort of idea as at the beginning of the poem: the speaker's process of growing old is compared to some process in nature where a bright, colorful thing (here, the day) gets replaced by a cold, dark, deathlike thing. Just as at the beginning of the poem, we think Shakespeare probably does this to emphasize the inevitability of death by connecting it to an experience everyone can relate to. What's your take?
Quote #5
In me thou seest 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 nourished by. (9-12)
Just like line 4, this quatrain seems to get into some weird double-switchback stuff between the human and the natural worlds. In line 9, Shakespeare takes us from the speaker (human) to something non-human, and arguably natural ("the glowing of such fire"). But then human terminology creeps back in when we learn that the fire "on the ashes of his youth doth lie." And yet, in line 11, the "death-bed" starts us off in a human key, but then the pronoun, "it" (repeated in line 12) takes us back to inanimate, non-human mode. What's going on here?
Quote #6
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long. (13-14)
What do you think about the comparison between Man and the Natural World in these lines? Wait—what's that? You say there isn't anything about the Natural World here? You know what? You're absolutely right. But why do you think that is, after 12 lines where the comparison between humans and nature has been constantly at the forefront? Try this on for size: maybe the love that the speaker is describing, the love that happens with full awareness of death hanging overhead, isn't found in nature; maybe it's distinctively human. If so, do you think Shakespeare could have deliberately excluded nature imagery from the closing section of his poem as a way of highlighting that fact?