How does the poet introduce the central theme of a midlife crisis in these lines?

Is there more to the question or ...

As I wend to the shores I know not, As I list to the dirge, the voices of men and women wreck'd, As I inhale the impalpable breezes that set in upon me, As the ocean so mysterious rolls toward me closer and closer, I too but signify at the utmost a little wash'd-up drift, A few sands and dead leaves to gather, Gather, and merge myself as part of the sands and drift. (from "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life" by Walt Whitman)