A butterfly appears in the wrong season and dies almost at once. That is the whole scene, and the poem keeps it small. The first butterfly of winter falls among big snowflakes, and the speaker calls its journey "from chrysalis to crystal irony." The butterfly began as a soft, sheltered thing and ends up frozen like a snow crystal. Its life has turned into a cruel joke, since a creature that stands for spring and change has landed in the one place it cannot survive.
The second stanza shifts from description to a quiet instruction: "Turn away eyes / From butterfly death." The speaker seems to find the sight painful, yet also tries to comfort us, or themselves, by noting that it "will melt in time." The mood is hushed and a little wry. There is sadness here, but it is restrained, and the melting suggests that even this small death will soon leave no trace.