Someone has just been told by a doctor that they have one year left to live, and the poem is their response. Instead of raging against death or hunting for some grand meaning, the speaker decides there's no time for half-hearted fulfilment. They turn to the one person they want beside them at the end: a partner who has stood by them through hard times.
The speaker describes the relationship through images of home and sky. They were the hearth, and their partner was the blazing fire; they were the moon and stars, and their partner was the whole night sky. The love is made to sound larger than the speaker's own life. Near the close, the body becomes an hourglass, with the last grains of sand standing for the days that remain.
The mood is tender and quietly resolved. There's sadness here, but it's softened by gratitude and by a clear, calm choice about how to spend the time left.