Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1857-1872
When rosy plumelets tuft the larch,
And rarely pipes the mounted thrush;
Or underneath the barren bush
Flits by the sea-blue bird of March;
Come, wear the form by which I know
Thy spirit in time among thy peers;
The hope of unaccomplish'd years
Be large and lucid round thy brow.
When summer's hourly-mellowing change
May breathe, with many roses sweet,
Upon the thousand waves of wheat,
That ripple round the lonely grange;
Come: not in watches of the night,
But where the sunbeam broodeth warm,
Come, beauteous in thine after form,
And like a finer light in light.
- "Rosy plumelets"? Things "tuft[ing] the larch"? A thrush "pip[ing]"? What??
- Okay, so we're back in spring. These are all ultra-poetic ways of saying birds are out flying around and flowers are blooming, so it's that time again.
- The speaker beckons to Arthur to return to him during springtime in the same form he had when he lived on earth.
- He wants him to come back in springtime or summer, but not at night.