Regret is the real subject here, and the poem treats it almost like a character. It glances back "furtively," as if it's embarrassed to look, and notices that the trail of our betrayals is going cold. The speaker isn't describing a dramatic confrontation. They're describing the quiet moment when it's too late to say what we should have said, and the words we never spoke become "dead words" in a "silent wilderness."
The feeling is a mix of sorrow, dread and uncertainty. Phrases like "potential meets its death" and "consequence conquers all" make the loss sound final, as though possibility has been used up and only the results remain. The poem ends on a question, not an answer, and the epigraph, "I don't know, do you?", admits that the speaker has no comfort to offer. The mood is hushed, bleak and reflective, and it leaves the reader to sit with the same question: what happens to us after the chance to make amends has passed?