The poem begins by describing a man you might walk past without a second glance: stocky, hairy, a working man with no clear past and no clear destination. But as the lines go on, he grows larger than one person. He is a cave dweller, a farmer on the first plains, a survivor of floods, someone living in cities. He seems to stand for humanity itself, always searching, always unsure of where he came from.
The speaker's feelings are tender and anxious at once. He wants love and knowledge, yet he loves and leaves, and he walks with his "feet planted in fear." The repeated phrases, "no clear origin, no obvious direction," and "bound up and freed and bound again," make the poem feel like a cycle that never ends. The mood is lonely and uneasy, especially with the line about "a country of murderers." Then the final lines turn personal: the speaker is the man, reaching out, and the words in his mouth were never spoken.