The poem reads like someone looking at an old picture and trying to recall what it meant. The speaker begins with "many years ago" and a sea that now seems vague and partial, as if the days themselves were too big to hold onto. Memory is patchy here. Only a few things come back, and the poem's broken lines mimic that: a word, a pause, another word.
Then the focus sharpens. The foreground becomes "so clear," and we see a wicker chair with a woman in it, wearing a hat for some occasion. The speaker can't say which occasion, or whether it was day or night. That uncertainty matters. The poem suggests that we keep small, vivid details while the larger context slips away.
The mood is quiet, wistful, and a little unsettled. The word "interrupted" at the end leaves the moment hanging, like a memory that simply stops rather than being resolved.