整首詩的前半段：
"When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:
Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,
To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise."
是主要感嘆曾經的美貌現在已經消失，曾經浪費了的美好日子現在才知道後悔。
整首詩下半段：
“How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.”
主要感嘆如果當年珍惜青春不浪費那麽多年華，如果當年能留下壹個後代，能夠讓他驕傲地說：“這個孩子將延續我的生命繼承我的美。” 該多好
所以這整首詩是感嘆生命短暫，人應當珍惜青春