Walter de la Mare’s speaker is asking forgiveness and hoping that his past failures might somehow be turned into comfort for others. He regrets both the hurtful things he has said and the tender words he never managed to speak. So he makes a wish: let those old griefs now become small mercies—flowers in a dusty silence, cool water for the exhausted, moonlight for the weary, dew full of kindness at the end.
There is a quiet, remorseful, gently elegiac mood. No anger here, only a soft, prayerful longing to undo harm and to offer rest to those who are lonely, lost, or nearing death. The images are all of relief after hardship—shade, water, moon, coolness. The speaker moves from personal regret toward a compassionate wish for anyone who suffers.