Answer: The theme of Sonnet 73 is the importance of showing love while we still can. The poem deals with the speaker's anxiety regarding his old age.
Explanation:
<em>Sonnet 73</em> was written by William Shakespeare. It is one of the most famous sonnets written by this poet.
In this sonnet, the speaker portrays his anxiety over his advanced age through a number of metaphors. He warns a young man to love him "well", because he is old and might soon leave this world. In doing so, the speaker describes <em>"yellow leaves" </em>and <em>"twilight"</em>, while the prefix 'twi' means 'half' and symbolizes his life which is almost over. In the second quatrain, the speaker describes the black night as <em>"death's second self"</em> which leads everyone to an eternal rest:
<em>"As after sunset fadeth in the west,
</em>
<em>Which by and by black night doth take away,
</em>
<em>Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
"</em>
In the final couplet, the speaker addresses the main idea of the sonnet once again - he urges his lover to love him, as he does not have much time left.
