We wander o’er the Earth, We walk a little here, and there, We write some nonsense, seek the mirth Of foolish friends who ever wear That same sweet camouflage—that play Of careless laughter on the air, That hides the heart in sad despair — We wander, friends, so far away!
At first glance, "We Wander" sounds light, even carefree. The speaker and their friends drift across the world, walking "a little here, and there," scribbling "some nonsense," and chasing a good time. But the poem slowly lets the mood slip. That "careless laughter" turns out to be "camouflage," a cheerful surface covering "sad despair."
What the speaker really seems to feel is a quiet loneliness. Wandering has stopped being an adventure and become a kind of drifting, with no place to settle. The word "foolish" is worth noticing: the friends aren't being mocked so much as gently pitied, since everyone is playing the same game of pretending to be fine. The final line, "We wander, friends, so far away!", changes the poem's meaning. It reads as a direct address, perhaps a sigh, about distance and being cut off from one another, even while together. The overall mood is wistful and bittersweet, a smile with something sad behind it.