A reading of Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare — a sonnet about growing older, the approach of death, and the strange way knowing something will not last can make us love it more fiercely.

Recorded live. I read the romantic canon out loud — the works I felt I should read before I die — and you're welcome to come sit for the next one. Subscribe and ring the bell to catch the next live reading.

THE POEM

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

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.

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,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

LISTEN

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The reading room — letters, and the before-I-die list: ravynreads.substack.com

RavynReads is poetry read aloud, plus Shelf Lives: hour-long conversations about the books that changed people's lives.

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