The speaker describes their own mind as a labyrinth, a place they built themselves. At first it works as shelter: somewhere to hide, where they set the rules and choose the lies. But the maze slowly turns into a prison. The speaker feels lost, tangled in thoughts, and falling like Alice down her hole, while everything fades to grey.
The feeling moves from control to despair. Phrases like "mind of glass, heart of stone" suggest someone who is both fragile and numb, hounded by demons that never leave. The ending is the darkest part. The speaker says there is no hope and arranges to meet "by the hanging tree," which hints at suicidal thoughts, and states that the labyrinth will be "the end of me." The repeated line "The labyrinth is my design" gives the poem a heavy irony: the trap was made by the one now caught in it. The mood is bleak, haunted, and quietly resigned.