The speaker mourns someone close, probably a sibling or childhood companion, who has died. Death is a quiet figure who arrives on the east wind and persuades the loved one to go, and the speaker wasn't told or given a chance to say goodbye. The poem treats the departure almost gently, as the result of time slowly pulling two people apart, but the hurt underneath is plain.
Now the speaker walks alone through the hills and lands where they grew up. The east wind still blows, and it tempts the speaker to follow, but the speaker resists "with all my heart." The cliffs, which sheltered their carefree days and have watched everyone come and go, become a kind of guardian. The poem ends with a small, anxious hope that they will warn the speaker when Death comes. The mood is wistful and haunted, tender toward the past and wary of what's ahead.