The speaker addresses a woman he once loved, comparing her to a summer flower. He is now “lost and lorn,” clinging to the memory of her beauty. As he imagines her walking alone in meadows by the river, he asks a series of gentle, aching questions: Does she ever think of him? Does his image still live in her heart when the day fades and she drifts into sleep? The mood is tender and reverent, not bitter—he adores her from a distance.
In the second stanza, he recalls how he clung to her youth and fairness, even when she looked on him with casual indifference. Only later, he suggests, did love finally touch her, descending like a sunset that spreads warmth and fragrance. There’s a bittersweet contrast between his enduring devotion and her belated, perhaps fleeting, affection. The whole poem is steeped in nostalgic yearning for a love that bloomed too late to be fully shared.