Sensory snapshots make up the poem. It begins with a quiet seaside scene: a soft breeze, a winter chill, birds far off, waves lulling. The mood is calm and almost dreamlike. Then the pictures start to slip. A mermaid swims past, a fire engine blares in the distance, and a dinosaur looms and threatens. Each image comes in the same short, two-line pattern, so the strange things arrive as if they were perfectly ordinary, the way events do in a dream.
By the end, the colour has drained away. The "bleak, colourless world" and the "monochrome kiss" suggest a feeling of emptiness, even in a moment that should be intimate. The odd mention of a butler adds to the sense that something is slightly off. The speaker seems detached, watching rather than joining in. Judging by the imagery, the poem moves from peace to unease to numbness, and it never says why. That gap is what makes it linger.