Beginning with a beautiful image of a fall day, "That Time of Year" by William Shakespeare it is actually the changing of the seasons that represents the theme of death. Though the images are beautiful, there is definitely a shift in mood with the line, "Which by and by black night doth take away". Death does take life away, that is not news. However, the mention of love at the end gives the poem some sort of a theme. Death makes us mortal, but love is eternal, and can make us strong- if we allow it.
What really makes this poem so potent is the mood. The distraught, sad mood gives us the sense of darkness that we need to truly understand the poem. Death is inevitable as the person lies on his deathbed. But he still has a lesson to learn: life and love cannot be taken for granted because we never know how much time we are really going to have. Death does not wait for us, so why should we wait for death to start living?
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