This sonnet is an example of typical Shakespearean style, comprising three quatrains in iambic pentameter ending in a heroic couplet, following a rhyming scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. It follows the tradition of dividing the sonnet into two parts. In the octave, Time is shown as the enemy of the transitory nature of beauty and there are references to different passages of time, “day”, “May”, “date”, “summer”. After the volta, highlighted by “But”, the sestet introduces Time as the solution: the youth’s beauty will be everlasting as long as the sonnet exists and the references are to the “eternal” and “So long as”. The final couplet, although part of the sestet, could stand alone and provides a strong closing point.