Addressed "to Love," the poem is a farewell to a feeling that once transformed the speaker and has now burnt out. In the first stanza, love is a fire that changed the speaker, even though they describe themselves as stuck in the same "ever despondency." The second stanza turns darker: the comfort of love's touch is tied to a "corpse," a body that holds lust, mildness and wishful thinking all at once, which suggests the speaker senses something already dead beneath the warmth.
The third stanza holds the central blow. The speaker and their partner didn't tire of themselves, but love did, and it seems to have returned to death just as it began in flames. The ending is quiet and resigned. Despondency comes back like an "eerie glow," and the speaker tells love goodbye, calling it an "old friend." The final line suggests that without leaving, their last fire would fade too. The mood is bittersweet, weary and haunted, with gratitude and grief mixed together.