The first half of this poem describes the memories of the old soldier's fighting career that year. He fought in the south and the north, and spent an extraordinary life in the army. The second part expresses his anger and sadness at being abandoned in his later years: "If current events are different, who will talk about it?" The old hero who immediately cut the knife now wants to "cut the sunflower with a sickle and put the chicken with a stick." He sighed: "In the past, it was like an eagle. Now, it is like an ape trapped in a trap." The contrast between these two completely different images shows the inner pain of the protagonist.
This poem also shows the old soldier's spirit of serving the country even in adversity. At the end of the poem, he compared himself to "Abandoned Son" and "Tired Horse", expressing his true feelings for the monarch, hoping that he would be useful in the old age and his resignation was sincere and touching. Obviously, this image of an old soldier with the idea of serving the country also has the poet's self.
This poem has far-reaching significance and a great span of time and space. With the change of the protagonist's fate, the feelings of poetry are first generous and unrestrained, and then angry and sad, which seems to be ups and downs and exciting.
The whole poem appears as a man with military achievements in the Han Dynasty, tells the story of his life's fighting experience and the grievances of being abandoned at home in his later years, and expresses his attachment to the monarch, hoping that the monarch will give him favor and not abandon those who have made meritorious deeds. During the reign of Song Wendi, the crusade against the Northern Wei Dynasty failed many times, and he also tried to contain and crowd out his generals, such as Tan Dao Ji. So this poem may have been written to satirize the monarch at that time. The ideological content and writing method of this poem have great influence on the creation of Du Fu's poem Out of Fort.