Images of That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Images found in Shakespeare’s That time of year thou mayst in me behold

1. Leaves in the fall, yellow or fallen off
2. Bare trees shaking in the cold
3. Empty choirs as opposed to beautiful singing birds
4. Twilight fading into a Sunset
5. Blackness as something that steals light
6. Glowing fire turning youth to ashes

Shakespeare’s poem consists of a lot of images of light versus darkness as can be seen in his comparison of spring and fall, twilight and sunset, night and day, and fire and ashes. This comparison between light and dark occurs throughout the poem and portrays the poem’s overall message that life is fleeting and must be appreciated. Every beautiful image created by Shakespeare of spring, daylight, and fire becomes the thing of darkness that it is being contrasted with. These light images mean life, which is vibrant and bright, but will fade away into darkness, death.
When the poem is broken up into the stanzas of a Shakespearean sonnet it is seen that Shakespeare places one comparison of light and dark in each stanza. Shakespeare begins his poem discussing fall and discussing how it had once been spring. Shakespeare notes that there may still be some leaves on the trees which shows that there is still some life left, it is not yet winter. In the next stanza twilight gives way to sunset and then darkness and sleep will soon follow. Sleep is described as “death’s second self,” meaning that people undergo a form of death at the end of the day. Next fire is described, a short and fleeting light that becomes ash, nothingness. The fire can no longer sustain itself is “consumed” as life is consumed to the point of death. In each of these stanzas the time frame of the image used to represent life is shorter than the one preceding it, showing that people have less and less time to live; people begin with a season but eventually they are left with only a fire as they length of time that they can live.
In his final lines Shakespeare writes that others see this changing from light to dark and how time grows shorter and they cherish their lives and the lives of those around them more because they know that they will soon be gone.