The poem follows a single albino crow through three small moments. First, it breaks a wing and somehow fastens it again, as if it can mend itself without help. Then it walks into a church and looks at the people there, who are reading about "infinite light." The crow is white, so the phrase hits oddly: it is a bird that already looks lit from within, yet it stands outside the congregation, watching. Finally it walks among the elms and has "a great deal of talk" with them, as though trees are better company than people.
The mood is quiet, solitary, and gently wry. The speaker doesn't tell us what the crow feels, but the poem suggests an outsider who is self-reliant, curious about human belief, and most at home in the natural world. The crow's difference marks it as strange, but the ending feels more peaceful than sad.