That time of year..... Shakespeare summary
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That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang"
You may see in me the autumn of my life, like the time when yellow leaves, or no leaves, or a few leaves still hang
"Upon those boughs which shake against the cold / Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
(The leaves hang on) branches, which shiver in anticipation of the cold; the branches are like empty, ruined church choir pews, and sweet birds used to sing on the branches.
"In me thou seest the twilight of such day / As after sunset fadeth in the west,"
You see in me the twilight of my life, like when the sunset has faded to darkness in the west,
"Which by and by black night doth take away / Death's second self, that seals up all in rest."
Which before long is replaced by the black night, Death's second self, which covers everything in a deathly sleep.
"In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire / That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,"
You see in me the glowing of a fire that is burning atop the ashes of its earlier burning (my youth),
"As the death-bed whereon it must expire / Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by."
The ashes are now the death-bed upon which the fire will go out, consumed by the very thing it was nourished by before.
"This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong / To love that well which thou must leave ere long."