Sonnet 1 - From fairest creatures we desire increase,

Sonnet 2 - When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,

Sonnet 3 - Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Sonnet 4 - Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Sonnet 5 - Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
Sonnet 6 - Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
Sonnet 7 - Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Sonnet 8 - Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sonnet 9 - Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
Sonnet 10 - For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Sonnet 11 - As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest
Sonnet 12 - When I do count the clock that tells the time,
Sonnet 13 - O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
Sonnet 14 - Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
Sonnet 15 - When I consider every thing that grows
Sonnet 16 - But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Sonnet 17 - Who will believe my verse in time to come,
Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Sonnet 19 - Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
Sonnet 20 - A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Sonnet 21 - So is it not with me as with that Muse
Sonnet 22 - My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
Sonnet 23 - As an unperfect actor on the stage
Sonnet 24 - Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd
Sonnet 25 - Let those who are in favour with their stars
Sonnet 26 - Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Sonnet 27 - Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
Sonnet 28 - How can I then return in happy plight,
Sonnet 29 - When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
Sonnet 30 - When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
Sonnet 31 - Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,
Sonnet 32 - If thou survive my well-contented day,
Sonnet 33 - Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Sonnet 34 - Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
Sonnet 35 - No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Sonnet 36 - Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Sonnet 37 - As a decrepit father takes delight
Sonnet 38 - How can my Muse want subject to invent,
Sonnet 39 - O, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
Sonnet 40 - Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
Sonnet 41 - Those petty wrongs that liberty commits,
Sonnet 42 - That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,
Sonnet 43 - When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
Sonnet 44 - If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Sonnet 45 - The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Sonnet 46 - Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
Sonnet 47 - Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
Sonnet 48 - How careful was I, when I took my way,
Sonnet 49 - Against that time, if ever that time come,
Sonnet 50 - How heavy do I journey on the way,
Sonnet 51 - Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
Sonnet 52 - So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
Sonnet 53 - What is your substance, whereof are you made,
Sonnet 54 - O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
Sonnet 55 - Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Sonnet 56 - Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Sonnet 57 - Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Sonnet 58 - That god forbid that made me first your slave,
Sonnet 59 - If there be nothing new, but that which is
Sonnet 60 - Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
Sonnet 61 - Is it thy will thy image should keep open
Sonnet 62 - Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
Sonnet 63 - Against my love shall be, as I am now,
Sonnet 64 - When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
Sonnet 65 - Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
Sonnet 66 - Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
Sonnet 67 - Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
Sonnet 68 - Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,
Sonnet 69 - Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
Sonnet 70 - That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
Sonnet 71 - No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Sonnet 72 - O, lest the world should task you to recite
Sonnet 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold
Sonnet 74 - But be contented: when that fell arrest
Sonnet 75 - So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Sonnet 76 - Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
Sonnet 77 - Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Sonnet 78 - So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
Sonnet 79 - Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,
Sonnet 80 - O, how I faint when I of you do write,
Sonnet 81 - Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Sonnet 82 - I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
Sonnet 83 - I never saw that you did painting need
Sonnet 84 - Who is it that says most? which can say more
Sonnet 85 - My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,
Sonnet 86 - Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Sonnet 87 - Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
Sonnet 88 - When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
Sonnet 89 - Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
Sonnet 90 - Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Sonnet 91 - Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Sonnet 92 - But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
Sonnet 93 - So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Sonnet 94 - They that have power to hurt and will do none,
Sonnet 95 - How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Sonnet 96 - Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
Sonnet 97 - How like a winter hath my absence been
Sonnet 98 - From you have I been absent in the spring,
Sonnet 99 - The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sonnet 100 - Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
Sonnet 101 - O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
Sonnet 102 - My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
Sonnet 103 - Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
Sonnet 104 - To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
Sonnet 105 - Let not my love be call'd idolatry,
Sonnet 106 - When in the chronicle of wasted time
Sonnet 107 - Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Sonnet 108 - What's in the brain that ink may character
Sonnet 109 - O, never say that I was false of heart,
Sonnet 110 - Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there
Sonnet 111 - O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
Sonnet 112 - Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Sonnet 113 - Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind;
Sonnet 114 - Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
Sonnet 115 - Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Sonnet 116 - Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Sonnet 117 - Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Sonnet 118 - Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
Sonnet 119 - What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Sonnet 120 - That you were once unkind befriends me now,
Sonnet 121 - 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
Sonnet 122 - Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Sonnet 123 - No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:
Sonnet 124 - If my dear love were but the child of state,
Sonnet 125 - Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
Sonnet 126 - O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Sonnet 127 - if it were, it bore not beauty's name;
Sonnet 128 - oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,
Sonnet 129 - The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Sonnet 130 - My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Sonnet 131 - Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
Sonnet 132 - Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Sonnet 133 - Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
Sonnet 134 - So, now I have confess'd that he is thine,
Sonnet 135 - Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
Sonnet 136 - If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near,
Sonnet 137 - Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
Sonnet 138 - When my love swears that she is made of truth
Sonnet 139 - O, call not me to justify the wrong
Sonnet 140 - Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
Sonnet 141 - In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
Sonnet 142 - Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
Sonnet 143 - Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch
Sonnet 144 - Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Sonnet 145 - Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Sonnet 146 - Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
Sonnet 147 - My love is as a fever, longing still
Sonnet 148 - O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Sonnet 149 - Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
Sonnet 150 - O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
Sonnet 151 - Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Sonnet 152 - In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
Sonnet 153 - Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep:
Sonnet 154 - The little Love-god lying once asleep

Sonnet 73 That time of year thou mayst in me behold

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 ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest 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 nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 73 Analysis

Poetry is a common medium for people to express love. Sonnets are almost
always about love. William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 is no exception. Senti-ments of
love along with those of against and death are expressed through the use of figurative
language. The poem is organized in such a way that, as it progresses, the reader feels the
author approaching death as the use of carefully chosen meta-phors that give Sonnet 73
such powerful imagery. In the beginning of the poem the author uses the metaphor of
autumn to stand for his progression in years. Just like the leaves change and fall from
the trees, the author has changed and lost his youth. The author next states a compari-
son of his aging to a sunset: In me thou seest the twilight of such day/ As after sunset
fadeth in the west (lines 05-06). Here sunset represents dying. The next metaphor
compares night, which occurs after sunset, to death. Which by and by black night doth
take away/ Death's second self that seals up all in rest (07-08).It is important to note that
the author has changed his focus from aging, to dying, to death, and narrowed his scope
to the close of one day (05). In the final quatrain the author speaks of a deathbed of
ashes (10-11). These ashes can be interpreted as the ashes of his youth. Those ashes had
once been the fuel of the man's youth, that which provided his youthful energy. But
now, they are now the place where the dying fire of his youth and strength dwindles to
nothingness. It is the final couplet of Sonnet 73 that first mentions love. The entire
poem is written to someone, probably a lover or a loved one. The last two lines,
however, seem to appear to sum up the relationship: This thou perceiv'st, which makes
thy love more strong// To love that well, which thou must leave ere long (13-14). Here
the author is saying that even though he is so close to death, the lover still loves him.
The author's advanced stage on life actually makes the love more strong (13), even
though the lover knows that the author will not be around much longer. Although the
author spends much of the sonnet speaking of aging, dying, and death, there is still an
element of love. The poem addresses a lover of the author through figurative language
and metaphors. The organization of the poem makes a steady progression from images
of aging, to dying, to death, and ulti-mately to love. Sonnet 73 is a love poem with
images of aging and death.

The speaker in sonnet 73 employs three different metaphors to describe his aging
process: a tree, a day, and a fire; his purpose is to emphasize the strength of love.

First Quatrain: “That time of year thou mayst in me behold”

In the first quatrain of Shakespeare Sonnet 73, the speaker addresses a beloved,
remarking that she may see that he is aging. He compares his body to a tree losing its
leaves: “yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang.” His hair is thinning, and the few
strands he has left are turning gray with age. The gray hair that once was brown is
likened to yellow leaves that once were green.

And like the tree’s branches trembling in the cold breezes of winter coming on, his own
limbs shiver more easily at the change of warm to cold weather. Even his poetry is
becoming “[b]are ruin’d choirs,” though it used to be filled with beautiful expression
akin to the songs of “sweet birds.”

Second Quatrain: “In me thou see'st the twilight of such day”

After comparing his aging to a tree in late autumn, he then compares the aging process
to a day, and he is in the “twilight of [that] day,” the time when the sun “fadeth in the
west.” As the sun sinks lower, nighttime comes and brings sleep in the normal day’s
activities.

But for this speaker who is approaching his last earthly days, night becomes “black
night” which not only will extinguish his life, but also will “take away” “Death’s second
self,” or sleep. He will not even be able to rest after black night has stolen his life.

Third Quatrain: “In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire”

In the third quatrain, the speaker again introduces a new metaphor: this time he
compares his ebbing life to a fire that “on the ashes of his youth doth lie.” His youth
once burned brightly, but now his flame is dwindling, and the very things that fed his
youth’s flame are being consumed by the low-burning fire of old age.

The Couplet: “This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more
strong”

Nevertheless, his beloved still offers him love and that love is even stronger. Knowing
that they must part at death, which is fast approaching, motivates the beloveds to
cherish their love and time together precisely because their time is short.

SONNET LXXIII

LXXIII The sonnet is the third in the group of

four which reflect on the onset of age.
1. That time of year thou mayst in me behold It seems that it is influenced partly by
2. When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do lines from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in
hang the translation by William Golding.
3. Upon those boughs which shake against the However the verbal parallels are
 somewhat sparse. Shakespeare's
presentation is much more
individualistic and cannot easily be
cold,
attributed to any one mould or
4. Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet
influence. It is worth noting that, if the
birds sang.
sonnet were written in 1600,
5. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
Shakespeare would only have been 36,
6. As after sunset fadeth in the west;
and it is quite probable that it was
7. Which by and by black night doth take away,
written before that date. An age that
8. Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
we would not consider to be the
9. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
threshold of old age. Of course the
10. That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
group of four sonnets, of which this is
11. As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
the third, begins with a putative
12. Consumed with that which it was nourish'd
skirmish with death and finality, so
by.
that it is in a sense merely thematic
13. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love
within that group to discuss the
more strong,
autumn of one's years, which will
14. To love that well, which thou must leave ere
shortly lead to parting and separation.
long.
We can therefore allow that it uses
some poetic licence in painting a
gloomy portrayal of the withered tree.
Nevertheless it is slightly surprising that the
statements are so definite and uncompromising.
This is how he is now, it is not some
prognostication of decay, or a brief glimpse
forwards to some imaginary time. The picture is
more like that of age on his death-bed, of the
autumn tree, of the onset of night, of the
actuality of dying. The thought seems closer to
the anonymous 16th. century poem

As ye came from the holy land

Of Walsinghame
Met you not with my true love
By the way as you came?

which becomes a lament for love's faithlessness

as age comes on.

She hath left me here alone,

All alone, as unknown,
Who sometime did me lead with herself,
And me loved as her own.

What's the cause that she leaves you alone

And a new way doth take, From The Passionate Pilgrim.
That sometime did love you as her own,
Crabbed age and youth
 And her joy did you make?

I have loved her all my youth,

But now old, as you see:
Love likes not the falling fruit, Cannot live together:
Nor the withered tree.
Youth is full of pleasaunce,
Age is full of care;
Some lines from The Passionate Pilgrim of
Youth like summer morn,
1599, which are often attributed to
Age like winter weather;
Shakespeare, are also relevant. (See opposite).
Youth like summer brave,
Perhaps Shakespeare was offering this sonnet
Age like winter bare.
as a charm to ward off rejection. Perhaps the
rejection was already evident and this is just a
historical analysis of what he already knows to
be the truth, a deja vue of love's forgetfulness.
Or perhaps he genuinely felt that age had stolen
a march on him.

THE 1609 QUARTO VERSION

73
Hat time of yeeare thou maiſt in me

T behold,
When yellow leaues,or none,or
fewe doe hange

Vpon thoſe boughes which ſhake

againſt the could,
Bare rn'wd quiers,where late the ſweet
birds ſang.
In me thou ſeeſt the twi-light of ſuch
day,
As after Sun-ſet fadeth in the Weſt,
Which by and by blacke night doth take
away,
Deaths ſecond ſelfe that ſeals vp all in
reſt
In me thou ſeeſt the glowing of ſuch
fire,
That on the aſhes of his youth doth lye,

As the death bed,whereon it muſt

expire,
Conſum'd with that which it was
nurriſht by.
This thou perceu'ſt,which makes thy
loue more ſtrong,
To loue that well,which thou muſt
leaue ere long.

1. You may observe in me that time of life

1. That time of year thou mayst in me
which is like the time of year when etc. The
behold
word behold, meaning 'to see or to observe', is
mostly literary and not often used nowadays.
2. The line, by its pauses, almost re-creates the
blowing away of the last resistant fading leaves
2. When yellow leaves, or none, or by the autumn wind. Only a few stalwart ones
few, do hang finally remain. Cf. Coleridge
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can.
Christabel. 49-50
There is a suggestion also of the faded,
yellowing papers with the poet's lines written
on them, as in Sonnet 17:
So should my papers, yellow'd with
their age.
The poet is like a tree with his
decaying, worn out verses being
dispersed in the wind.
3.shake against the cold = tremble in
3. Upon those boughs which shake anticipation of cold days to come; shiver in the
against the cold, actual cold; shake in the cold blast of the gale.
against is used in the sense of 'in anticipation
of, in preparation for' in Sonnets 49 and 63.
4. Bare ruined choirs, where late the 4. The emendation of Q's rn'wd quiers to
sweet birds sang. ruined choirs is generally accepted.
'Choir' was the spelling adopted from
the close of the 17th century. In
Shakespeare's day it was quyre,
quire, or quiere. The choir is the part
of the church at the top, eastern end,
the chancel, where the choristers
stood and sang. Shakespeare uses
the word seven times, only twice with
this meaning.
......The rich stream
Of lords and ladies, having brought
the queen
To a prepared place in the choir, fell
off
A distance from her; H8.IV.1.62-5.

and
Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage
We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,
And sing our bondage freely. Cym.III.3.42-4
Elsewhere the meaning is that of a group of
singers, presumably choristers, as in this from
2H6:
myself have limed a bush for her,
And placed a quire of such enticing birds,
That she will light to listen to the lays,
2H6.I.3.86-8
In Midsummer Night's Dream it is used to
mean a company of friends or gossips:
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and
laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
MND.II.1.51-6.

Since the publication of Empson's Seven Types

of Ambiguity in 1930 (the extract is given at the
bottom of this page) commentators tend to
agree that the imagery recalls the many ruined
abbeys and churches which were left to decay
after Henry VIII's dissolution of the
monasteries. Churches were also vandalised or
abandoned at various times in Elizabeth's
reign. In the early years of the reign there were
few parish priests, and later, after the religious
settlement and with the spreading influence of
European reformist ideas, churches could be
seen as symbols of popery and reaction and of
the old religion. Enclosures of common land,
with the consequent abandonment of villages,
would also have caused some churches to fall
to ruin. However it is not possible to say with
certainty that the image of a ruined chancel
 was primarily what Shakespeare had in mind.
He tends not to use the word ruin(s) or ruined
other than in a figurative or general sense, as
in:
Ruin hath led me thus to ruminate Sonnet 64
or in
..........The king has cured me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these
shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken
A load would sink a navy, too much honour.
H8.III.2.380-3.
But the above is the only instance where the
word specifically refers to a building or a part
of a building, and the lines were possibly
written by Fletcher. Generally Shakespeare is
more interested in wreckages of human
personalities -
.............She once being loof'd,
The noble ruin of her magic, Antony,
Claps on his sea-wing, AC.III.10.18-20.
(loofed = with the head of the ship turned
towards the wind).
Perhaps the most famous line featuring ruin is
from Julius Caesar, when Antony speaks over
Caesar's corpse:
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
JC.III.1.257-8.

I remain unconvinced that the rich stream of

suggestions listed by Empson in Seven Types
of Ambiguity, (see below), which has led to
much debate on this line, is entirely justified. It
is a mattter of opinion whether branches of
trees look very much like ruined abbeys.
Readers must judge the matter for themselves.
Other fleeting references in the line may be to
quires of paper which contain songs and
sonnets. Or to the composer William Byrd,
who moved away from London in the 1590's,
probably owing to his Catholicism.
5. In me thou see'st the twilight of 5. of such day = of such a day of late autumn
such day or winter as I have been describing. Or day
could be a synonym for 'light', allowing the
meaning to run on to the next line. 'In me you
see such a time of life which is like twilight,
 when the daylight, after sunset, fades away in
the West'.
6. As after sunset fadeth in the west; 6. See note above.
7. Which = the twilight.
by and by = fairly rapidly; soon. Cf. Hamlet's
response to Polonius - I will come to my
7. Which by and by black night doth
mother by and by. Ham.III.2.373.
take away,
take away = As well as the meaning of
'remove' there is also the implication of doing
away with, killing, destroying by underhand
means. Thus Macbeth, contemplating the
murder of Duncan, fears that Duncan's virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet tongued,
against
The deep damnation of his taking off.
Mac.I.7.19-20.
Night kills off the daylight, as a murderer kills
his victim.
8. Sleep is often portrayed as a second self of
8. Death's second self, that seals up Death, or Death's brother. Compare:
all in rest. Care Charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born:
Samuel Daniel, Sonnets to Delia, liv. (c 1600).
But in this sonnet Night takes the place of
sleep as the grand slayer. Three images are
possibly condensed here. That of sealing a
coffin; sealing a letter, or a will, or a sentence
of death, (i.e. folding it up and using sealing
wax to seal it: envelopes were a later
invention); covering over the eyes (seeling), as
one did with tamed birds of prey. Similar
imagery is used in Macbeth:
..........Come seeling Night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day.
Mac.III.2.46-7.
But the thought in Mac. is somewhat different,
being concerned with Macbeth's determination
to ally himself with evil forces in Nature.
9. In me thou see'st the glowing of 9. such fire = such as is seen at twilight; such
such fire, as is described in the next line.
10. his youth = the fire's youth. The possessive
10. That on the ashes of his youth doth
'its' was not yet in use in Elizabethan England,
lie,
so we should not assume that the word 'his'
adds more to the sense of personification than
if it had been 'its youth'.
11. As the death-bed, whereon it must 11. As the death-bed - the ashes of his youth
expire, are as a death-bed; whereon it must expire = on
 which it, the fire, or the youth, must at last die.
12. Consumed with that = consumed, eaten
away, at the same time as; eaten away by those
12. Consumed with that which it was
things (which also nourish it). Similar to the
nourish'd by.
line from Sonnet I :
Feeds thy light's flame with self-substantial
fuel.
Life's progress from beginning to end is
summed up in one line.
13. This thou perceiv'st, which makes 13. Possibly a wish, rather than a statement of
thy love more strong, fact. 'When you perceive this, it will strengthen
your love'. this presumably refers to the poet's
waning life, described in the quatrains.
14. that = that person, spirit, dream of your
imagination, me, the poet. Alternatively - your
14. To love that well, which thou must
youth and freshness which is doomed to the
leave ere long.
same fate.
well - could include a pun on Will, the poet's
name.
leave = depart from, abandon; give up. A
sidelong glance also at 'to come into leaf'. SB
points out that the couplet could have a bawdy
interpretation.
Previous Sonnet
Next Sonnet

Empson's comment on line 4.

The fundamental situation, whether it deserves to be called ambiguous or not, is

that a word or a grammatical structure is effective in several ways at once. To take
a famous example, there is no pun, double syntax, or dubiety of feeling in
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang,
but the comparison holds for many reasons; because ruined monastery choirs are
places in which to sing, because they involve sitting in a row, because they are
made of wood, are carved into knots and so forth, because they used to be
surrounded by a sheltering building crystallised out of the likeness of a forest, and
coloured with stained glass and painting like flowers and leaves, because they are
now abandoned by all but the grey walls coloured like the skies of winter, because
the cold and narcissistic charm suggested by choir-boys suits well with
Shakespeare's feeling for the object of the Sonnets, and for various sociological and
historical reasons (the protestant destruction of monasteries; fear of puritanism),
which it would be hard now to trace out in their proportions; these reasons, and
many more relating the simile to its place in the Sonnet, must all combine to give
the line its beauty, and there is a sort of ambiguity in not knowing which of them to
hold most clearly in mind. Clearly this is involved in all such richness and
heightening of effect, and the machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots
of poetry.