Sonnet 73, Theme

Sonnet 73 is almost as exemplary as sonnet 60 in expressing the theme of the ravages of time. The sonnet focuses on the narrator's own anxiety over growing old and, like sonnet 60, each quatrain of sonnet 73 takes up the theme in a unique way, comparing the narrator's "time of year" (i.e., stage of life) with various examples of the passing of time in nature. The metaphors shorten in duration from months to hours to what may be minutes, the acceleration itself a metaphor for the increasingly rapid rate at which old age begins to take its toll on the human body.