[Eileen Cleary]

I’m wondering why the poem is in italics-perhaps it is referencing another poem.

The nonspecific language in the verse opens the narrative to wide interpretation-probably a universal theme but a specific narrative that each reader creates, because we perceive meaning individually.

I see this as a poem about a man who was hurt or wronged-or felt as though he had been wronged- when he was younger causing him to become cold hearted or unaware of the effects of his actions on others; or perhaps shutting down to the point where he became numb (nonplussed) to the wrongs around him. The tragedy is that the boy or young man becomes someone who doesn’t know how to live or perhaps (unspoken) love.
I did find this couplet syntactically awkward and initially, puzzling.

Thus, much Unjust
still leaves Nonplussed,