This poem tries to depict the mental condition of a caged tiger. The tiger is taking to and fro steps in the cage as if trying to while away the time. The tiger should have been in its natural habitat sliding through the long grass. It would have been trying to catch a live deer. But in the cage the tiger is so fed up that it even ignores the visitor. The last line heightens the contrast between freedom and captivity. Brilliant stars outside the cage seem to be more brilliant than those brilliant eyes behind the cage.
It seems that the tiger also understands the freedom that the star might be enjoying.