The musicologist Richard Engländer calls the song especially interesting for its use of a march from a key moment in Naumann's opera Gustaf Wasa: the King's nocturnal monologue in his tent, where he debates whether to capitulate or to fight.

[5] The epistles, written and performed in different styles, from drinking songs and laments to pastorales, paint a complex picture of the life of the city during the 18th century.

A frequent theme is the demimonde, with Fredman's cheerfully drunk Order of Bacchus,[6] a loose company of ragged men who favour strong drink and prostitutes.

At the same time as depicting this realist side of life, Bellman creates a rococo picture, full of classical allusion, following the French post-Baroque poets.

The women, including the beautiful Ulla Winblad, are "nymphs", while Neptune's festive troop of followers and sea-creatures sport in Stockholm's waters.

[10] The melody is found in Johann Gottlieb Naumann's 1786 opera (with Johan Henric Kellgren's libretto) Gustaf Wasa [sv], but it is not certain whether Bellman took it from there directly or via another source.

[11] The song makes light of death, urging youths to "heed my word, and take the prettiest Nymph who smiles at you under your arm".

You at your dram and rummer glass, with cheeks all flushed and hat awry, ere long your hearse will slowly pass and swathed in black go by!

And you who big words ne’er did shun, your coat by stars and orders hid, the joiner’s got your coffin done, is planing smooth its lid!

Bellman, he writes, transforms the robust military associations of the melody into a "a cynical song of contempt for death in soldierly tone".