The first-person narrator of the sonnet experiences the early stages of infatuation. He observes the brief, unpredictable nature of the summer season and uses it as a point of comparison. Seeking to preserve a feeling that outlasts the physical world, he relies on his poetry to grant eternal life to his subject.

The addressee of the sonnet serves as the central focus of the speaker's admiration. The poem describes this figure as "more lovely and more temperate" than the summer season, lacking its extreme heat or unpredictable shifts. The analysis suggests the beloved might be a specific, unnamed individual or a broader personification of the experience of love itself.