Parts of this poem make me think that the speaker is not necessarily old in age, but rather that they are wasting away in illness - a consumption perhaps? - particularly that third quatrain:
"In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by."
Even youth may be consumed into twilight by long-lasting disease.
I have been reading Shakespeare's sonnets through as we do this, and I am struck by the continuos thread of having another human's light to illuminate one's life, a constant variation on the theme "it is not good for man to be alone." The single person does not ask themselves if one person above all will be there at their twilight, but whether anyone at all will be there.
That’s an interesting and possible take, for sure. I’m not sure if consumption was called consumption until later. I’m going to look into that. So thanks for that “assignment,” haha!
More seriously, your note about singles is so true and poignant. Thank you.
Karen, I'm also not sure if consumption was consumption then. Let me know what you find!
I could have said wasting disease, which is a translation of both the Latin consumptio and the Greek phthisis. A wasting disease could have been tuberculosis, which has been endemic for millennia, but it might also be something else, such as diabetes or some types of cancer or even an autoimmune disease - without modern techniques of imaging and testing, the symptoms would look similar. Anything chronic that would cause gradual weight loss and diminishing energy levels as the human body wore itself out prematurely by trying to stay alive in the wake of constant internal damage.
Karen- somehow I think a class on Shakespeare should be required for every M.Div student in our Southern Baptist Seminaries. I am persuaded that studying his sonnets and his plays would deepen our ability to communicate God’s truth in a much more meaningful way. Thanks -
The whole sonnet is captivating but that ending really is just so moving - the love that burns brighter as the life in the beloved 'burns so pale'. Have seen that often in pastoral work. Thanks you so much for choosing this sonnet, Karen, a rare treat it is.
We're blessed to holiday most years very near to the little church that I think was his final pastorate (St Hywyn, Aberdaron, North Wales). I grew up only a few miles from there but was completely oblivious to him and his poetry. Thankfully no longer. When I read his poem, The Moon in Lleyn, I can hear the breaking waves, see the tiny Gwylan Islands out in the bay and find I'm held and humbled. If you want to give it a read, here ya go - https://thewaitingcountry.blogspot.com/search?q=lleyn
Thank you for the link to the poem A Marriage. Sublime, truly. Grief and love in beautiful co-mingling. I agree, it is a wonderful pairing with Sonnet 73.
Patrick Stewart and John Gielgud both appear on YouTube reading it - it’s a fascinating comparison with Gielgud’s approach almost as if it was an aria and Stewart concentrating on the meaning
As someone growing old with his wife of many years, I love this sonnet. But Karen, I think "bare ruined choirs" is not a reference to "recently emptied choir lofts," as you put it. A choir loft, usually at the rear of a church, perched over the vestibule where people enter, is a modern architectural feature. But Shakespeare must mean what older usage calls the "choir," the space "above" (or eastward from) the nave and transept of a traditionally cross-shaped church, minster, or cathedral. As in Westminster Abbey, this area has pews facing each other across the open space just below the altar. Here, in an abbey, the monks or nuns gathered for chant during prayer and liturgy, while others who might be attending occupied the transept and nave.
Jack Heller, in an earlier comment, says something about the possibility of Catholic nostalgia on Shakespeare's part. I'm a Catholic but skeptical of the "secretly Catholic Shakespeare" theory. Still, in his day, there were actual "bare ruined choirs," in the abbeys emptied and despoiled under the Tudor dynasty. There, in those actual ruins, "sweet birds" of the Catholic religious life once sang.
Matt, like a good Baptist I do not know the technical/architectural terms! 😅 I meant simply that “choir” refers to the place of the choir, not the group of people we call the choir. I have been enlightened and educated and am grateful! (Seriously.)
Thank you, I wondered if the image had something to do with the structures of old English churches, but was missing some information, having grown up in North American churches, with their widely varied architecture.
The discussion about whether Shakespeare had nostalgia or yearnings to Catholic traditions reminds me of Shakespeare's older contemporary, the church composer Thomas Tallis. Tallis began his career with the Latin liturgy and ended with the English, as he spanned the reigns of Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I. He seemed to have no trouble with the transition, although his seven settings for the new English Psaltery have outlasted the words - Archbishop Parker didn't have the greatest ability in versification of the Psalms into the common tongue. Tallis' work contributed to Anglicans keeping the tradition of singing the Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis in services, only now in English instead of Latin, and sung by choirs of laypeople instead of monks and nuns.
The discussion of Shakespeare's Christian beliefs would take more analysis than I can write on my cell phone. However, Shakespeare was directly affected by the destruction of the Protestant iconoclasts. A chapel still stands in Stratford-upon-Avon at the site of the school Shakespeare attended. With some restoration work, visitors to the chapel can see the remnants of a Last Judgment painting and statuary that the chapel had prior to the 1570s, when Shakespeare would have been a student. Shakespeare's father John was almost certainly a Catholic, and I believe researchers have dated the destruction to occuring when John Shakespeare had been the mayor. I am persuaded that Shakespeare knew what had happened in the chapel before he was a student there. Iconoclasm occurs in 1.1 of Julius Caesar and in the Henry VI play with Jack Cade's rebellion (part 2, I think).
When I discuss Shakespeare's religion, the "bare ruined choirs" are a support for a kind of Catholic nostalgia. I don't think a case can be made that Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic. (In saying so, I am contradicting something I wrote in a book years ago.) But I do think Shakespeare was/is nostalgic for the aesthetics of Catholic churches and liturgy.
Of course, it's also charming to think of a line of songbirds on a tree branch chirping away contentedly. Come on, Spring! 🐦
To quote you, wow, just wow. It's been a while since I have revisited this sonnet, and appreciate the examination of the speaker assumes/ accuses/projects his lover's perspective of his aging. Will need to go back and consider each (and all) possibilities. Did the reading account for the lover leaving before the speaker died when the reality of aging becomes an obstacle (even perhaps repulsive, as the speaker gets ahead of the potential abandonment by naming the ugly truth?) Also thought that the shaking boughs were a reference to the speakers defiance of aging....maybe it's my age (lol) but I hearing defiance and longing along side the dignity and grace.....Anyway, new reader/student and appreciating the classroom you have created here.
Your conclusion brings to mind this passage: “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ..."
Now I know it’s a few months ago now but if anyone is interested there is a really good podcast on the context of the Canterbury takes I’ve just been listening to. I don’t know how to link but google ‘Rest is history podcast and go to 8th February
Parts of this poem make me think that the speaker is not necessarily old in age, but rather that they are wasting away in illness - a consumption perhaps? - particularly that third quatrain:
"In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by."
Even youth may be consumed into twilight by long-lasting disease.
I have been reading Shakespeare's sonnets through as we do this, and I am struck by the continuos thread of having another human's light to illuminate one's life, a constant variation on the theme "it is not good for man to be alone." The single person does not ask themselves if one person above all will be there at their twilight, but whether anyone at all will be there.
That’s an interesting and possible take, for sure. I’m not sure if consumption was called consumption until later. I’m going to look into that. So thanks for that “assignment,” haha!
More seriously, your note about singles is so true and poignant. Thank you.
Karen, I'm also not sure if consumption was consumption then. Let me know what you find!
I could have said wasting disease, which is a translation of both the Latin consumptio and the Greek phthisis. A wasting disease could have been tuberculosis, which has been endemic for millennia, but it might also be something else, such as diabetes or some types of cancer or even an autoimmune disease - without modern techniques of imaging and testing, the symptoms would look similar. Anything chronic that would cause gradual weight loss and diminishing energy levels as the human body wore itself out prematurely by trying to stay alive in the wake of constant internal damage.
Karen- somehow I think a class on Shakespeare should be required for every M.Div student in our Southern Baptist Seminaries. I am persuaded that studying his sonnets and his plays would deepen our ability to communicate God’s truth in a much more meaningful way. Thanks -
I couldn’t agree more, Steve.
The whole sonnet is captivating but that ending really is just so moving - the love that burns brighter as the life in the beloved 'burns so pale'. Have seen that often in pastoral work. Thanks you so much for choosing this sonnet, Karen, a rare treat it is.
It's a very different sort of poem but I think it pairs well with RS Thomas' A Marriage (if you don't have access to it it's here - https://thewaitingcountry.blogspot.com/2009/02/r-s-thomas-marriage.html ).
I need to read more RS Thomas. We all do. Thanks for making that connection--and the link.
We're blessed to holiday most years very near to the little church that I think was his final pastorate (St Hywyn, Aberdaron, North Wales). I grew up only a few miles from there but was completely oblivious to him and his poetry. Thankfully no longer. When I read his poem, The Moon in Lleyn, I can hear the breaking waves, see the tiny Gwylan Islands out in the bay and find I'm held and humbled. If you want to give it a read, here ya go - https://thewaitingcountry.blogspot.com/search?q=lleyn
Oh wow. That poem is magnificent. I’d teach that next to Yeats. Maybe when we get to Yeats (if? haha!) I will refer back to this. Thank you, Richard.
Please do! That would be awesome.
Thank you for the link to the poem A Marriage. Sublime, truly. Grief and love in beautiful co-mingling. I agree, it is a wonderful pairing with Sonnet 73.
Thank you, Teri.
Patrick Stewart and John Gielgud both appear on YouTube reading it - it’s a fascinating comparison with Gielgud’s approach almost as if it was an aria and Stewart concentrating on the meaning
There's some great readings on YouTube - Alec Guiness's version of Eliot's Four Quartets and John Cleese reading The Screwtape Letters are tip top.
Such are some of the great gifts of technology, aren’t they?
Indeed!
Oh, please link those if you have them handy! Thanks for pointing them out.
I don’t know how to do that but what I did was google ‘sonnet 73 YouTube’ I think Patrick Stewart read all of them as a lockdown project
Here is Gielgud’s reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0rGaK13LKjbqXiaMqLlFPC?si=dEGEq188T-OzTKxzZ8RXCg
Great commentary on Sonnet 73, Karen, and wonderful contributions from your readers, too. Wow, so good.
You offered The Clash with the question of to stay or not. I offer Carole King with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." https://youtu.be/TxWrUtbzlLM?si=wqUpmknp0vxbEi5D
An even greater song, Teri!
As someone growing old with his wife of many years, I love this sonnet. But Karen, I think "bare ruined choirs" is not a reference to "recently emptied choir lofts," as you put it. A choir loft, usually at the rear of a church, perched over the vestibule where people enter, is a modern architectural feature. But Shakespeare must mean what older usage calls the "choir," the space "above" (or eastward from) the nave and transept of a traditionally cross-shaped church, minster, or cathedral. As in Westminster Abbey, this area has pews facing each other across the open space just below the altar. Here, in an abbey, the monks or nuns gathered for chant during prayer and liturgy, while others who might be attending occupied the transept and nave.
Jack Heller, in an earlier comment, says something about the possibility of Catholic nostalgia on Shakespeare's part. I'm a Catholic but skeptical of the "secretly Catholic Shakespeare" theory. Still, in his day, there were actual "bare ruined choirs," in the abbeys emptied and despoiled under the Tudor dynasty. There, in those actual ruins, "sweet birds" of the Catholic religious life once sang.
Matt, like a good Baptist I do not know the technical/architectural terms! 😅 I meant simply that “choir” refers to the place of the choir, not the group of people we call the choir. I have been enlightened and educated and am grateful! (Seriously.)
Glad you love this sonnet as I do.
Thank you, I wondered if the image had something to do with the structures of old English churches, but was missing some information, having grown up in North American churches, with their widely varied architecture.
The discussion about whether Shakespeare had nostalgia or yearnings to Catholic traditions reminds me of Shakespeare's older contemporary, the church composer Thomas Tallis. Tallis began his career with the Latin liturgy and ended with the English, as he spanned the reigns of Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I. He seemed to have no trouble with the transition, although his seven settings for the new English Psaltery have outlasted the words - Archbishop Parker didn't have the greatest ability in versification of the Psalms into the common tongue. Tallis' work contributed to Anglicans keeping the tradition of singing the Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis in services, only now in English instead of Latin, and sung by choirs of laypeople instead of monks and nuns.
The discussion of Shakespeare's Christian beliefs would take more analysis than I can write on my cell phone. However, Shakespeare was directly affected by the destruction of the Protestant iconoclasts. A chapel still stands in Stratford-upon-Avon at the site of the school Shakespeare attended. With some restoration work, visitors to the chapel can see the remnants of a Last Judgment painting and statuary that the chapel had prior to the 1570s, when Shakespeare would have been a student. Shakespeare's father John was almost certainly a Catholic, and I believe researchers have dated the destruction to occuring when John Shakespeare had been the mayor. I am persuaded that Shakespeare knew what had happened in the chapel before he was a student there. Iconoclasm occurs in 1.1 of Julius Caesar and in the Henry VI play with Jack Cade's rebellion (part 2, I think).
Really helpful background, Jack. Thank you!
When I discuss Shakespeare's religion, the "bare ruined choirs" are a support for a kind of Catholic nostalgia. I don't think a case can be made that Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic. (In saying so, I am contradicting something I wrote in a book years ago.) But I do think Shakespeare was/is nostalgic for the aesthetics of Catholic churches and liturgy.
Of course, it's also charming to think of a line of songbirds on a tree branch chirping away contentedly. Come on, Spring! 🐦
To quote you, wow, just wow. It's been a while since I have revisited this sonnet, and appreciate the examination of the speaker assumes/ accuses/projects his lover's perspective of his aging. Will need to go back and consider each (and all) possibilities. Did the reading account for the lover leaving before the speaker died when the reality of aging becomes an obstacle (even perhaps repulsive, as the speaker gets ahead of the potential abandonment by naming the ugly truth?) Also thought that the shaking boughs were a reference to the speakers defiance of aging....maybe it's my age (lol) but I hearing defiance and longing along side the dignity and grace.....Anyway, new reader/student and appreciating the classroom you have created here.
Your conclusion brings to mind this passage: “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ..."
Now I know it’s a few months ago now but if anyone is interested there is a really good podcast on the context of the Canterbury takes I’ve just been listening to. I don’t know how to link but google ‘Rest is history podcast and go to 8th February