As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. -Sonnet 73
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on aging and the inevitable approach of death, likening it to the twilight that follows sunset.
In this quote from Sonnet 73, Shakespeare uses the metaphor of twilight to explore the themes of aging, death, and the passage of time. He illustrates the gradual fading of life, much like the day transitions into night, highlighting the inevitability of death which brings rest after life's struggles. The imagery evokes a sense of melancholy but also acceptance, as it acknowledges the beauty and fleeting nature of existence.
Themes
AgingDeathTwilightLifeNature
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on Shakespeare, I might use this quote to discuss themes of mortality in literature.
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes →Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
William ShakespeareRead
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
William ShakespeareRead
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
William ShakespeareRead
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William ShakespeareRead
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Similar quotes
Sexual intercourse is kicking death in the ass while singing.
Charles BukowskiRead
The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular, to the state legislatures.
James MadisonRead
A word of the faith that never balks,_x000D_ _x000D_ Here or henceforward it is all the same to me, I accept Time absolutely._x000D_ _x000D_ It alone is without flaw, it alone rounds and completes all,_x000D_ _x000D_ That mystic baffling wonder alone completes all.
Walt WhitmanRead
The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason.
Samuel PisarRead
Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons are better than one genius?
Leo SzilardRead
Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?
P. L. TraversRead