The speaker shares her poems hoping someone will notice she is in pain and help her, not to collect compliments. She says the verses are "pleas on paper," but readers keep responding as if they were simply art. When they say "beautiful," what she means to say, and what she feels, is "mercy." The gap between those two words is the heart of the poem.
Her tone shifts from pleading to frustration. The questions "Is it not clear enough?" and "Are my sufferings my fault?" sound tired and hurt, as if she has already explained herself many times. The ending is bitter and chilling. The title, "Words of A Dead Woman," suggests she is speaking from beyond the point where help could reach her, and the final lines say that any help will have to come to her grave. The mood is heavy, urgent and sad, and it leaves the reader with a sense of how costly it is to ignore a cry for help just because it is beautifully written.