This painting is an allegory for the passing of time and the life cycle. The lovers in the foreground sit listening to the piping angel, with wonderful outstretched red wings. The male figure seems entranced, but the woman is distracted. The open book before them holds the key to her distress as it shows a passage from Latin poet Tibullus’s 'Elegy', where the writer imagines dying in his lover’s arms and considers her grief at his funeral. 'Interea dum fata sinunt iugamus amores iam veniet tenebris Mors adoperta caput iam subrepet iners aetas nec amare decebit dicere nec cano blanditias capite' The passage is translated as: 'List we to love meanwhile, in lover’s fashion: Death wears apace with darkness round his brow Dull Ela is stealing up to shame our passion; How shall grey hairs beseem these whispered vows.