This poem explores the cycle of life from birth to death, emphasizing how we are all born alone and will ultimately die alone despite forming relationships along the way. It notes how one is alone with parents as a child, then alone with a spouse to raise responsibilities of one's own children who will eventually leave and be alone themselves, continuing the cycle. The only thing that remains with us when we are alone, even in death, is the good deeds we did in life, though they alone cannot save us without the mercy of God.