Autumn is closing in, and the poem watches a small, ordinary moment: a candle burning down. As the flame dies, its smoke drifts downward, and the speaker compares that sinking smoke to "a mind turned quiet." The image is gentle. Thought slows, noise falls away, and what's left is a hush.
Then the poem turns to its real subject. In that stillness, "we hear love take leave / without speaking." The speaker doesn't describe a quarrel or a dramatic parting. Love simply goes, and the only way to notice it is by listening. The word "we" suggests two people sharing the loss, though the poem doesn't say more about who they are.
The mood is hushed, wistful and resigned. Shortening days, a dying flame and falling smoke all point toward ending, yet nothing is violent or bitter. The closing ellipsis leaves the silence hanging, as if the poem itself trails off with the love it describes. The title hints at a debt to Trakl, but the poem works fine without knowing that.