The speaker walks through a landscape of ruins, with no clear sense of where they are going or why. The wind keeps stopping and starting, and a crow screams overhead. The speaker can't tell whether the bird is announcing disaster or giving a warning, and since a crow can't explain itself, they are left with the question. The opening line returns near the end of the first stanza, so the speaker seems to be circling the same spot, much as they are circling the same worry.
The second stanza turns to the street, where overflowing trash cans and a "hungry soul" suggest scavenging and hardship. The speaker has also lost track of time: days, months, maybe a year. By the end they no longer know where the journey began, or even the difference between paradise and hell. The mood is bleak and disoriented, with a tired, numb quality. Rather than shouting despair, the poem lets confusion and exhaustion speak, and the simple, slightly broken phrasing makes the speaker's uncertainty feel more real.