The poem wanders through a cemetery, and the speaker's thoughts keep circling back to dogs. It opens with a strange, tender question about how to lay a dog out properly for burial, as if a mistake could leave its ghost restless. Dogs aren't allowed inside, so the speaker looks for them in stone, finding "snouts among the angels." Then comes a surprising thought: maybe dogs don't want humans with them in heaven, since we might frighten the wolves.
The tone shifts between playful and sombre. The cemetery is called a refuge for "invisible friends," and the trees at Highgate seem almost joyful, free to grow wild and be as extravagant as they like, everything except dying. The ending turns inward. The speaker writes weeks later, in deep silence, trusting the pen to find its way in the dark. The mood is quiet, curious, and a little grief-touched, though the poem never says outright what is being mourned.