The poem begins with a description of the light moving from one hill or mountain ridge to another, and from one flower to another, as time passes. The movement of light reflects the movement of the sun in the sky, and the speaker notes that the hepaticas, a specific type of flower, grow faint. Presumably, the flowers are faint to the eye of someone watching this process, as the fading light can only be noticed by someone who can see it. The speaker then observes that as the light changes, the petals of the flowers curve inward toward their blue center, and the flowers are "lost." Perhaps the flowers are only lost in that they can no longer be detected by the human eye, perhaps their color is lost, or perhaps the inward curling of the petals hides the flowers' true essence.
In the second stanza, the speaker mentions a new type of flower, the "cornel-buds," noting that they still appear white in the fading light, but that shadows move around them. The decreasing amount of light gives the impression that a swatch of black spreads to each flower, beginning at the roots. The speaker states that each leaf cuts another leaf on the grass, suggesting that the angled light of sunset causes each leaf to partially obscure another leaf. Using personification, the speaker notes that "shadow seeks shadow," as the shadows grow and conglomerate, before the distinct border between each leaf and its shadow is too dark to distinguish. Finally, as the sun goes down, they too are "lost" or invisible to the naked eye.
