The poem opens with a small, bleak picture: a candle burning on a winter night, compared to a dead letter, a message that never reaches anyone. Right away the title, "Eviction notice," colors what follows. The candle seems to stand in for a home under threat, or already lost, and the light feels more like a last sign of presence than a comfort.
The speaker's voice is clipped and weary. "I have nothing to say to it" sounds like a person worn down, unwilling or unable to argue with whatever force is coming. The next lines widen the view to "the poor," who "can give / no account of their own," suggesting people whose stories are ignored or told by others. The final lines turn to the city, which only becomes "a place" once it has been "cut out of the ground," as if building it means severing something.
The mood is cold, quiet and resigned, with an undercurrent of anger held very low.