The speaker is talking to her older lover, already picturing the day when time will age him and pull him away from her while she is still in her prime. Right now, they feel lifted together toward something almost timeless, but she knows that feeling cannot last. She imagines a future night when one of them will lie awake and realize their shared flame has gone out, remembering how young she was when he first came to her as a grown hero. Her words ache with present love and anticipated grief. She is not angry at him; she is mourning in advance for what time will do to them both. The final image of morning breaking on their shared anguish makes the loss feel quiet and inevitable. The mood is intimate, elegiac, and heavy with love already touched by mortality.
Unnamed Sonnets X — Summary
Oh, my beloved, have you thought of this: How in the years to come unscrupulous Time, More cruel than Death, will tear you from my kiss, And make you old, and leave me in my prime? How you and I, who scale together yet A little while the sweet, immortal height No pilgrim may remember or forget, As sure as the world turns, some granite night Shall lie awake and know the gracious flame Gone out forever on the mutual stone; And call to mind that on the day you came I was a child, and you a hero grown?-- And the night pass, and the strange morning break Upon our anguish for each other's sake!