Ghost's "Surrender" begins by talking straight to the reader. It asks whether you know that shrinking feeling of believing everyone is against you, the kind that makes you so cautious about upsetting anyone that you stop doing much at all. The speaker describes this as a small, timid feeling, and the line breaks reflect it, with short, hesitant phrases that trail off just when you expect them to finish. Giving up, the poem suggests, is where that feeling ends: you throw in the towel.
The tone is casual at first. "Yeah, it comes and goes" sounds almost like a shrug. Then the speaker asks what happens if it stays, and the mood turns uneasy. The last move is the most striking. Instead of offering advice on how to shake the feeling, the speaker asks, "Do you know how it begins?" and leaves the question hanging. The poem ends on that open question, which makes the reader stop and think about where this kind of surrender actually starts.