Passage of Time William Shakespeare's fine sonnet, number 73, appears to have a dark, gloomy, and depressing aura about it. However, if you look deeper into it, I think it has an important message and a warning to it. The message has to do with not wasting the days of one's youth, to make every day count because you won't be young forever. The passage of time is mentioned throughout the sonnet, and the effects that …showed first 75 words of 719 total…

…showed last 75 words of 719 total…This comes through in the final line of the sonnet, "To love that well which thou must leave ere long" (14). Shakespeare tells us that you cannot stop the hands of time; it marches on, babies grow up, teenagers become adults, and adults grow old and die. The poet reminds us not to waste a moment of precious youth, when times are more care free, the best times of one's life, when your fire burns brightest.