The poem begins with a cool, almost academic question: is "evil" a word we still need, or does it just sit alongside things like work and madness as part of life? The speaker wonders whether it fits how people think today. Then the tone shifts sharply. He walks into the night "as full as a lost moon," a strange, lonely image of being swollen with feeling but cut off from any path.
What follows is unsettling. He moves close to a woman who has said no touching, and he calls himself "all mouth," ready to "eat and drink the land up." The poem seems to show appetite pushing past limits, which makes the opening question feel pointed: the speaker may be sliding into the very thing he asked about. The title, "Pragmatist," adds a dry irony, since he treats desire as simply what works.
The last image, a canary "perfect against the sun," is open to interpretation. A canary is often a warning sign of danger, so the calm ending feels eerie. The overall mood is restless, hungry, and quietly menacing.