Acceptance of the Waste of Time in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 and When I fear that I may cease to be very thing that you fear losing. Both Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73" and Keats's "When I fear that I may cease to be" reveal the irrationality of this fear and explore different interpretations of this theme: for Keats, death equates to the inability to reach one's potential to achieve what he wants. ; for Shakespeare, death (represented in the metaphors of autumn, dusk and ashes) will separate him from earthly and physical love. Through various rhetorical strategies and subtheme content, these authors ultimately address their struggle with mortality and time; their sonnets support the idea that fearing loss and death is a waste of precious time. By framing the various metaphors of autumn, twilight, and ashes in “Sonnet 73,” Shakespeare portrays the end of time. His systematic depiction of familiar concepts such as symbols of the passage of time and patterns of life creates three individual parallel sonnets that come together at the poem's conclusion to form a shared theme (Bloom 12). Shakespeare begins with the broad season of Autumns and becomes progressively more specific as he discusses twilight, a smaller frame of reference, and finally the ashes, the one nonlinear metaphor that is the most specific of the three (Vendler 335). The first quatrain is dedicated to the representation of autumn as the final season. These four verses are characterized by a tone of bewilderment, emptiness and nostalgia for the spring that represents the poet's youth. The "cold-trembling branches" that were once covered with green leaves stand alone and practically empty in the col...... middle of paper ......a moment in the earth's short time:/ 'This, I too shall pass.'" -Lanta Wilson SmithWork CitedBloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. pages 12-13 Elliott, NathanielWhen I am afraid that I may cease to be, " Poetry for Students: Volume 2, Detroit: Gale, 1998. Hirst, Wolf Z. John Keats. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. Ingram, W. G. and Theodore Redpath, Ed. "Sonnet 73," Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1968. p. 168-169.King, Bruce. “When I Fear That I May Cease to Exist,” Poetry for Students: Volume 2, Detroit: Gale, 1998. Napierkowski, Marie Rose, and Mary K. Ruby. Vendler, Helen. The art of Shakespeare's sonnets. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1997. p. 333-336.