Sonnet #73

I found this sonnet to be particularly sad since we went over it in class with Sara and Emma. The couplet is what intrigued me specifically. "This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love grow more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long." The speaker is saying that all these things make love stronger, and you love even more what you'll lose eventually. I think those lines are so true. Our lives are all extinguished at one point or another. Knowing this should make us appreciate the things we have, and the things we love even more. In lines 9-12 the speaker is using fire as a symbol of life, and ashes as death. And even though the speaker's describing a person as old and dying, there's still the fire of youth visible inside. This sonnet is so meaningful in that aspect that the fire of youth is never truly gone until a person literally is.