Autumn as an argument

Public-domain text, Shakespeare, Sonnet 73: "That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang." A worked annotation circles "yellow," "none," and "few" and marks the movement from season to mortality.

1. Literal image: a tree late in autumn.
2. Pattern: the leaves diminish.
3. Inference: the speaker frames aging as gradual loss.