Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
This  metaphor  captures the transience of human life. We are destined to die as waves are destined to break, and so our lives pass in  metaphorical  rapid minutes. The verb “hasten” is the key. 
 In Shakespeare’s time life was short and those in their mid-forties were already regarded as old. The idea of time therefore appears frequently in Shakespeare’s writings. For example, the early sonnets are addressed to the Fair Youth and urge him to find a young woman with whom to have children and thereby, through his living progeny, cheat death and time.
Sonnet 60