That Time of Year
By: William Shakespeare

In this poem, Shakespeare characterizes the speaker's age with different aspects of nature.  He begins by comparing the speaker's age to autumn.  He creates imagery of the few surviving leaves hanging on the dead trees, the cold weather of winter approaching, and the lack of birds because they have all migrated away.  Next, the speaker's age is compared to twilight.  The "sunset fadeth in the west" (966) informs readers that darkness is making its way into the speaker's life, meaning his death will be soon.  He then compares the narrator to a fire.  "The ashes of his youth doth lie on the deathbed whereon it must expire" (967).  The fire of the narrator's youth is dying out, so he will soon die in the ashes of this "fire."  In the final two lines of the poem, the speaker is addressing a loved one.  He tells the loved one to understand the situation, and their love will only grow stronger from this point forward.  I noticed Shakespeare's use of iambic pentameter in this poem.  The quatrains (4 lines in a group) ended in ABAB rhyme schemes.  Also, Shakespeare ends the poem with a couplet, as the final lines end in rhyme with the words "strong" and "long."