The poem describes a strange object hanging in a room: an effigy made from dreams. Normally an effigy is burned at a protest, but this one was never burned, because doing so would only have satisfied someone's ego. It couldn't be sold as art either, so it stayed unwanted, caught between two fates that both seemed wrong.
The second part is quieter and more bitter. After years in the drawing room, the effigy has lost its power to protest. It has become a piece of furniture, something people walk past, and the speaker says it "derides memories," as if it mocks the hopes it once stood for.
The speaker seems tired and regretful. The poem suggests that anger and idealism, when they are kept polite and tucked away at home, fade into decoration. The mood is dry, bleak, and faintly ironic, with a sense of dreams left hanging rather than either fulfilled or destroyed.